Chapter 12 - The Facade Shatters
"Get your filthy hands off me!" Evelyn screamed, thrashing against the grip of the two six-foot state troopers. "Do you have any idea how much this coat costs?! I am Evelyn Vance! My father sits on the State Supreme Court bench!"
"Your father’s retired, lady, and he already declined to take your call," Trooper Hayes said flatly, pushing her toward the secure intake bench. "Sit down and shut your mouth."
Evelyn's mascara was smeared across her cheeks, her styled blonde hair matted into messy clumps. When she saw Richard in handcuffs across the lobby, she lunged toward him.
"Richard! Tell them! Tell these backwoods idiots who we are!" she shrieked. "That psycho ex-wife of yours destroyed our house! She stole our child! Why are you just standing there like a coward?!"
Richard stared at her. The illusion was gone. The polished trophy wife who spent forty thousand dollars a month on clothes was gone. In her place stood a frantic, vicious monster.
"Did you burn him?" Richard asked, his voice shaking with a quiet, dangerous rage.
Evelyn stopped mid-rant, her eyes flickering. "What?"
"Did you burn my son with a styling iron, Evelyn?!" Richard roared, lunging forward until the deputy hauled him back by his collar. "Look at me! Did you touch him?!"
"He was unruly!" Evelyn blurted out, her composure slipping into hysterical defiance. "He’s stubborn, vulgar, and stupid, just like his mother! He needed to learn manners! You were never there, Richard! You left me alone with that screaming brat for weeks while you played golf in Scottsdale! I did what had to be done to keep him quiet!"
The entire ER lobby—nurses, orderlies, injured patients waiting in chairs—stared at her in stunned silence.
Deputy Miller calmly pulled a digital audio recorder from his chest pocket, pressed a button, and held it up. "Thank you, Mrs. Vance. Colorado is a one-party consent state for law enforcement recordings. You just confessed to felony child torture on an active police wire."
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Evelyn went sheet-white. Her jaw dropped, and for the first time, utter terror replaced her haughty arrogance.
Cliffhanger: Suddenly, Leo’s monitor inside the trauma bay spiked, and a small, trembling voice cried out from the bed: "Mommy... she's here... she's going to lock me in the dark again!"
