Chapter 5 - The Confrontation
"You monster," I gasped, the words tearing from my throat.
Aaron dropped to his knees right there on the concrete porch, weeping hysterically. "Elena, please! Listen to me! I was going to pay it back! I had a system! The gambling was just to double the money so I could clear the loans before you found out!"
"Shut up!" Richard roared, turning on his son with a face twisted in shock and rage. "You used her identity?! You brought the federal government to my front door?!"
"Richard, calm down!" Patricia sobbed, wrapping her arms around Aaron's shaking shoulders. "He made a mistake! He's our boy! Elena, tell them to stop! You're his wife! You can't let them arrest him!"
I looked down at Patricia—the woman who, just thirty minutes ago, had made me walk two miles on a sprained ankle while she laughed with her bridge club friends. The woman who had treated me like trash under her roof.
"He isn't my husband anymore," I said, my voice hardening into absolute, unbreakable steel.
"Elena, please!" Aaron sobbed, reaching out his trembling hands toward my shoes. "I love you! Think about Caleb! He needs his father!"
"Caleb needs a mother who isn't ruined by a thief," I said, turning my back on him completely.
Detective Miller stepped forward, pulling Aaron's arms behind his back and snapping the heavy steel handcuffs over his wrists. "Aaron Vance, you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law."
As the officers began dragging Aaron down the porch steps toward the police cruiser, Patricia turned on me like a rabid animal, her fingernails clawing at the air.
"You ungrateful little viper!" she screamed, her silk kimono disheveled, tears ruining her face. "We took you into our home! We fed you! We gave you a roof over your head! And you destroy my family over a financial misunderstanding?!"
Dad stepped between Patricia and me, his massive frame completely blocking her from my sight.
"Mrs. Vance," Dad said, his voice dropping into a register that made the entire porch go dead silent. "Your son destroyed your family the moment he decided to commit federal crimes. And as for this house..."
Dad pulled a legal document from one of the suits standing beside him.
"This is an emergency eviction notice and asset freeze served on this residence," Dad announced flatly. "Since the funds used to pay the property taxes on this house for the past two quarters were drawn directly from the fraudulent credit accounts opened in my daughter's name, this entire property is now flagged as a secondary asset in a federal fraud investigation."
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Richard went pale. "What? You can't seize our house!"
"The court can, and the court has," Dad replied. "You have forty-eight hours to pack your personal belongings and vacate the premises pending a full forensic audit."
