Chapter 9 - The Arrest
The police swarmed the mansion within seconds.
Detective Harris, a tall man with a no-nonsense demeanor, led the charge.
Nathan tried to run, but two officers pinned him to the floor before he made it out of the bedroom.
“Get your hands off me! I’m the CEO of Vance Enterprises!” Nathan screamed.
“Not anymore,” Richard said, straightening his shirt.
Evelyn sat rigidly in the velvet armchair, refusing to look at the officers placing handcuffs on her wrists.
“This is absurd,” she told Detective Harris coldly. “My son is mentally unstable. He’s making up stories.”
Harris took the audio recorder from Richard.
He played back Nathan’s confession about the brakes and Evelyn’s threat.
Evelyn’s mouth snapped shut.
“Attempted murder, fraud, and conspiracy,” Harris said, reading her her rights.
They hauled the three of them out of the house in a chaotic procession.
I stood by the window, watching the police cruisers speed down the long driveway.
The silence that fell over the mansion afterward was deafening, but it wasn’t oppressive.
It felt like breathing clean air for the first time in months.
Richard stood beside me, his hands in his pockets.
“It’s over,” he said softly.
“How do you feel?” I asked, looking up at him.
“Like a man who just got his life back.”
He turned to me, his expression softening.
“And I owe it to you.”
“I just locked a door and swapped some pills,” I joked lightly, though my heart was beating fast.
“You risked your life for a stranger, Emily.”
“You weren’t a stranger,” I said. “We were both betrayed. We just fought back together.”
He reached out, gently tucking a stray piece of hair behind my ear.
His touch sent a jolt of electricity through me.
“What happens now?” I whispered.
“Now, I take my company back,” Richard said.
“And you?” he asked. “What do you want?”
I thought about Margaret’s mocking laugh, and Daniel’s smug voice.
“I want to be undeniable,” I said.
May you like
Richard smiled, a genuine, warm smile I had never seen before.
“Then let’s start tomorrow.”
