Chapter 9 - The Fall of the House of Sterling
Arthur tried to stand at attention, puffing his chest out in a pathetic display of former glory.
"Colonel Vance!" Arthur barked, his voice cracking under the sheer terror suffocating him. "I am a retired Colonel in the United States Army! I demand you order these men to stand down! You are violating military protocol! You have brought disgrace upon this uniform!"
Garrett took three slow, measured steps forward. He stopped less than six inches from Arthur’s face. He towered over his father-in-law, his gaze cutting through the older man like an acetylene torch through tin.
"You are not a Colonel anymore, Arthur," Garrett said, his voice quiet, lethal, and devastatingly clear.
The federal marshal stepped forward, unfurling a sealed parchment bearing the gold seal of the Department of the Army and the Department of Defense.
"Arthur Sterling," the marshal recited loudly. "Under Article 2 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, pursuant to executive review by the Office of the Judge Advocate General, your retired commission has been formally suspended pending general court-martial proceedings for witness tampering, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy to commit child endangerment."
Arthur’s eyes bulged. "Suspended?! You can't suspend my commission! I served thirty years!"
"You served yourself," Garrett whispered, leaning in closer. "You turned your back on my nine-year-old son while his blood was on your floor. You cared more about a four-dollar bronze star than your own grandson's life. You used your former rank to intimidate local cops and doctors to protect an abusive coward."
Garrett reached out with two fingers. With a single, sharp tug, he ripped the decorative military pin straight off Arthur’s lapel and dropped it onto the floor, crushing it beneath the heel of his combat boot into the hardwood.
"You are a disgrace to this uniform, Arthur. And by the time the Pentagon is done with you, you will lose your pension, your healthcare, and your veteran honors. You will die a civilian felon."
Arthur gasped, grabbing his chest as his legs completely gave out. He collapsed into an armchair, wheezing, clutching his throat as his entire identity was stripped away in thirty seconds.
"Garrett, please!" Evelyn shrieked, falling to her knees, clutching at Garrett’s trouser leg with manic desperation. "He's your father-in-law! Travis is your brother-in-law! We're family! You can't do this to us! What will the neighbors say?!"
Garrett looked down at her with pure, unadulterated disgust. He took one step back, letting her hands slip into the dust of the breached doorway.
"You told my wife that nobody wants a fatherless brat," Garrett said, every word hitting her like a whip. "You laughed while my child bled. You are not my family. You are monsters. And monsters don't get mercy."
Two female federal agents moved in, pulling Evelyn to her feet and clamping cold steel handcuffs around her wrists. "Evelyn Sterling, you are under arrest for accessory after the fact to aggravated child abuse and federal obstruction of justice."
"No! Get your hands off me! Arthur, do something!" she wailed, her voice echoing shrilly into the night as she was dragged out toward the waiting patrol cars in front of dozens of gawking neighbors who were recording the entire spectacle on their phones.
Then, Garrett turned his attention to the dining room floor.
Travis was curled into a fetal position beneath the table, hyperventilating, tears and snot streaming down his face.
Garrett walked over, grabbing Travis by the collar of his expensive designer shirt with one hand, and hoisted the three-hundred-pound man off the floor as if he weighed nothing, slamming him against the wall right beside the shattered oak cabinet.
Travis shrieked, his eyes rolling back in terror. "Please! Garrett, please! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to push him that hard! I was drunk! I'll pay for the hospital! I’ll pay for everything!"
Garrett leaned in until his nose was an inch from Travis’s trembling face.
"You told my son his dad didn't care about him," Garrett whispered, the sound terrifying in its calm precision. "Look at me, Travis. Look at my eyes."
Travis whimpered, forcing his bloodshot eyes to meet Garrett’s cold, merciless stare.
"Does it look like I don't care?"
"I'm sorry... I'm sorry..." Travis sobbed, wetness spreading across the front of his designer jeans as he lost complete control of his bladder.
"You touched my son," Garrett said softly. "You threw a defenseless child into glass. You are going to a federal penitentiary, Travis. And every single inmate in that facility will know exactly why you are there."
Garrett let go. Travis slid down the wall like a sack of wet flour, weeping uncontrollably.
"Take this piece of trash out of my sight," Garrett commanded.
May you like
The federal marshals swarmed in, wrenching Travis’s arms behind his back, clicking heavy iron cuffs onto his wrists, and dragging the sobbing golden boy out through the shattered doorway into the cold, merciless glare of the spotlights.
***
