Chapter 5 - The War for the Estate
By the following morning, news of Elaine Vance’s arrest had exploded across every major news portal in the state.
Real Estate Matriarch Arrested in Fatal Staircase Fall, Vance Empire Frozen Amid Federal Fraud Probe, and Tragic Loss of Twins Exposes Fifty-Million-Dollar Trust Scandal.
I was discharged from the hospital under the care of Marcus, who escorted me directly to a high-security residential complex downtown. He had hired two private security guards to stay outside my door around the clock, ensuring that neither Daniel nor his mother’s associates could approach me.
Sitting in the sunlit living room of the apartment, wearing a warm sweater, I held a cup of chamomile tea while Marcus laid out the legal strategy on the coffee table.
"Elaine’s legal team is trying to post her two-million-dollar bail right now," Marcus informed me. "But with the federal banking charges formally added to the state assault indictment, the judge is likely to classify her as an extreme flight risk."
"What about Daniel?" I asked, my voice small and tired.
"Daniel is panicking," Marcus said. "He spent all night at their corporate headquarters trying to clean the server logs, but federal agents raided the building at six o'clock this morning. They seized every computer, hard drive, and financial ledger in the office."
My phone on the table began to vibrate. The screen displayed Daniel.
I stared at the glowing name for three long seconds. I didn't want to answer it, but Marcus gently nodded at me. "Put it on speakerphone, Claire. Let him dig his own grave."
I tapped the screen and pressed speaker. "Hello, Daniel."
"Claire! Thank God!" Daniel's voice came rushing through the speaker, hysterical, breathless, and frantic. "Claire, you have to talk to Marcus! You have to tell him to pull back the federal injunction! They’ve locked the corporate accounts! I can't even pay the retainers for Mom's defense team!"
"I don't control the federal prosecutors, Daniel," I said, my voice ice cold. "You did this to yourselves when you chose money over human lives."
"Claire, please!" Daniel wept openly into the phone. "I didn't push you! You know I didn't push you! I was standing at the end of the hallway! I didn't know Mom was going to do it!"
I froze. I looked at Marcus, whose eyes widened sharply.
"You knew she was angry, Daniel," I said, keeping my tone steady to keep him talking. "You stood there and watched her put her hands on me."
"I thought she was just going to scare you!" Daniel confessed, his panic blinding him to the legal weight of his words. "She said if you gave birth to those twins, we would lose everything! She said you were taking control of the estate away from us! I tried to stop her, but it happened so fast!"
"And then you told me to lie to the doctors while my babies were dying in my womb," I said, tears of rage springing to my eyes.
"I was trying to protect our family, Claire!" Daniel pleaded foolishly. "If Mom goes to prison, the Vance name is destroyed! Please... just tell the police it was a misunderstanding. We can rebuild our lives! We can try for another baby!"
The utter selfishness of his words made me feel sick to my stomach.
"Don't you ever speak about my babies again, Daniel," I said, my voice dropping into a quiet, lethal register. "You aren't a husband. You're an accomplice to the murder of your own children."
"Claire, wait—"
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"Goodbye, Daniel," I said, and ended the call.
Marcus immediately tapped his tablet screen, stopping the recording software. "We just got a full verbal admission of co-conspiracy and prior knowledge on tape, Claire. Daniel’s legal defense is completely finished."
