Chapter 2 - The Arrest at Ocean View
The heavy front doors of the estate didn't just open; they were breached with tactical precision.
Heavy boots thundered up the marble staircase, the metallic clatter of assault rifles and utility belts filling the high-ceilinged hallways. Within forty seconds, four uniformed LAPD officers and a sergeant flooded into the master suite, their weapons drawn and low.
“LAPD! Everybody keep your hands where we can see them!” the sergeant yelled, his flashlight beam piercing the room.
Corrine immediately dropped to her knees, throwing her arms into the air and bursting into loud, frantic sobs.
“Officer! Thank God!” she wailed, her performance shifting in a fraction of a second. “My son has lost his mind! He’s being controlled by this woman! She attacked my daughter and me! Look at the safe! She hired people to break in!”
Sloan followed her mother’s lead, bursting into theatrical tears. “She tried to kill us! Look at the sledgehammer! She tried to hit my mother with it!”
The responding sergeant looked between the crying older woman in designer clothes, the sledgehammer lying on the destroyed safe, and then down at me, sitting on the floor holding a bruised, pale woman in my arms.
“Are you Thane Sterling?” the sergeant asked, his hand remaining near his sidearm.
“I am,” I said calmly. I kept my left arm firmly around Alora while reaching into my inner jacket pocket with two fingers, pulling out my phone. “Sergeant, my wife is five months pregnant and requires immediate medical attention. The suspects are my biological mother, Corrine Sterling, and my sister, Sloan Sterling.”
“He’s lying!” Corrine shrieked, trying to stand up, but an officer immediately placed a firm hand on her shoulder, forcing her back down. “I am his mother! I own this property!”
“This property is registered under the Sterling Family Revocable Trust, of which I am the sole trustee and executor,” I said, my voice steady and crystalline. “Corrine and Sloan Sterling bypassed the electronic security gate at 1:42 AM. They assaulted my wife to extort the combination to the home safe, which contains personal jewelry, real estate deeds, and corporate bearer bonds.”
“It’s a family dispute, Officer!” Sloan yelled, her voice trembling with rising panic as an officer pulled her hands behind her back. “You can’t arrest us for being in our brother’s house!”
“Sergeant,” I continued, unlocking my phone screen and turning it toward the officer. “At 2:03 AM, I initiated a continuous 4K video recording from the hallway vantage point. The file was automatically uploaded to an off-site cloud server with an immutable timestamp. The video clearly captures Corrine Sterling physically striking my wife, dragging her by the hair, and demanding the safe combination while Sloan Sterling attempts to breach the safe with a sledgehammer.”
The sergeant took the phone, his eyes narrowing as he watched the screen. The sickening sounds of Corrine screaming at Alora echoed from the small speakers.
The sergeant’s face hardened instantly. He handed the phone back to me and turned toward his officers.
“Cuff them both,” he ordered flatly.
“What?!” Corrine screamed as the metal handcuffs clicked tightly around her wrists. “Do you know who I am?! I am Corrine Vance-Sterling! I sit on the board of the Philharmonic! You cannot put iron on my wrists! Thane, tell them to stop! Thane!”
“You have the right to remain silent,” the officer read in a cold monotone, pulling Corrine to her feet. “Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law...”
Sloan began to thrash violently, her designer heels scraping against the floorboards. “Thane! You pathetic coward! You’re putting your own sister in jail for her?! She’s a nobody! She came from a middle-class family in Ohio! We are Sterlings!”
I stood up slowly, lifting Alora into my arms. Her head rested against my chest, her breathing finally evening out as she realized the nightmare in the room was being forcibly removed.
I walked past Sloan without giving her a single glance. As I reached the doorway, I stopped beside Corrine, who was struggling against the officer’s grip, her eyes wide with unadulterated venom.
“The monthly allowance ends tonight,” I whispered close to her ear, my voice so low only she could hear it. “The Aspen house will be seized by my legal team by noon tomorrow. Every luxury you enjoyed using my father’s name is gone.”
“You bastard,” she spat, her lip trembling with rage. “I gave you life!”
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“And tonight, you forfeited your right to share it,” I replied.
I walked past the officers and down the grand staircase as paramedics rushed up with a gurney. I didn't let them put Alora on the stretcher. I carried her directly out the front doors and into the waiting ambulance myself.
