Chapter 7 - The Arrest on the Lawn
Brooke didn't look at Trent. She didn't cry, she didn't apologize, and she didn't offer a single word of comfort. She simply crossed her arms, rolled her eyes toward the darkening sky, and let out a cold, cynical sigh.
"Grow up, Trent," Brooke sneered, her voice dropping all its sugary sweetness, revealing the coarse, calculating street hustler underneath. "You owed eighty grand to people who break kneecaps. You told me your rich, stupid wife would pay whatever we asked if we used your mommy’s health as an excuse."
Trent staggered backward as if he had been struck with a baseball bat, his back hitting the stone pillar of the courtyard archway. "The baby... you said it was mine. You swore it was a miracle!"
"You're shooting blanks, Trent," Brooke snapped without a trace of remorse. "Your clinic tests proved that three years ago. I needed a kid with a clean paper trail so I could collect child support from your family trust for the next eighteen years. Too bad your wife is smarter than you are."
A collective gasp rippled through the terrace guests. Two of Trent's closest friends quietly set their drinks on the patio tables, slipped through the side garden gate, and vanished into the evening shadows.
"All right, that’s enough," Deputy Miller said, stepping between Trent and Brooke. "Brooke Jenkins, also known as Brooke Vance, you are under arrest pursuant to an active warrant for grand larceny, wire fraud, and criminal conspiracy issued by the state of Arizona."
Brooke didn't fight as the deputy turned her around and clicked the cold steel cuffs around her wrists. She held her head high, walking toward the police cruiser with the resigned indifference of someone who had played high-stakes poker and simply lost the hand.
Gloria began hyperventilating on the lawn, sinking down onto the grass in an attempt to stage a medical emergency. "My heart! Trent, call an ambulance! She’s killing me!"
"The paramedics are already waiting down the street, Gloria," Evelyn said, looking down at her with cold disgust. "Along with a second warrant for your arrest as an accessory to elder-care fraud and wire embezzlement. You can ride in the back of the squad car or the ambulance, but your destination tonight is the county holding facility."
May you like
Gloria’s miraculous medical crisis cleared up instantly. She scrambled to her feet, her lavender pantsuit covered in grass stains, cursing at me with every obscenity she had ever learned.
Trent stood against the stone pillar, completely hollowed out, watching his mother and his mistress being loaded into separate patrol vehicles. The life he had built on vanity, theft, and deceit had collapsed in less than twenty minutes.
