Chapter 14 - The Ambush in the Underground
The realization of Eleanor’s depravity burned away the last remnants of my exhaustion, replacing it with pure, cold fury.
At nine o'clock that evening, I left Gemma under the watchful eye of our trusted nanny, a retired pediatric nurse Arthur had vetted personally.
I needed to retrieve Walter’s original safe deposit key from my personal lockbox at the private depository downtown.
Marcus escorted me down to the secure underground parking garage where my SUV was parked under bright halogen lights.
The garage was vast, echoing with the hum of the ventilation shafts and the distant drip of moisture from the concrete walls.
"Stay close to the vehicle, Mrs. Vance," Marcus instructed, scanning the rows of parked luxury cars.
"The night patrol just completed their sweep, but I don't like the blind spots near the service ramp."
I nodded, unlocking the car door with the remote.
Before my hand could touch the handle, a disheveled figure stumbled out from behind a concrete support pillar twenty feet away.
"Paige! Paige, listen to me!"
It was Richard.
His expensive cashmere coat was torn at the hem, stained with grease and cheap bourbon.
His face was sunken, covered in patchy stubble, and his bloodshot eyes darted wildly between me and Marcus.
Marcus instantly drew his baton, placing himself between me and my ex-husband with lethal efficiency.
"Do not take another step, Mr. Vance," Marcus barked, his voice echoing like a gunshot through the cavernous garage.
"You are in violation of a registered supreme court restraining order."
"Keep your hands where I can see them!"
Richard raised both hands, weeping openly, his body trembling with uncontrollable convulsions.
"I don't care about the order!" Richard cried, his voice cracking with hysteria.
"Paige, you have to listen to me!"
"My mother... my mother has lost her mind!"
I looked at the man I had once believed would protect me, feeling nothing but profound disgust.
"Get away from me, Richard," I said, my voice chillingly calm.
"You gave up your right to speak to me the night you put Gemma’s stroller in the snow."
"She sold the family debt to Victoria Sterling!" Richard screamed, tears streaming down his grimy cheeks.
"Do you understand what she did?!"
"She didn't just want to get back at you!"
"She signed an affidavit claiming Walter was mentally incapacitated when he transferred the penthouse deed to you!"
"She gave Sterling our grandfather's private journals!"
"They aren't just trying to evict you, Paige!"
"They are trying to void Walter’s entire will and have you indicted for grand larceny and elder abuse!"
"She promised them half of everything if they put you in prison and give Gemma to her!"
The words hit me like a bucket of frozen brine.
Eleanor hadn't acted alone in calling Child Protective Services.
It was part of a coordinated legal strategy to manufacture evidence of instability before the probate hearing.
"And what was your role in this, Richard?" I asked, refusing to flinch.
"Did you sign the affidavit too?"
Richard dropped to his knees on the cold concrete, clutching his head in his hands.
"I refused! I swore to her I wouldn't touch Gemma!" he sobbed.
"She locked me out of the house!"
"She told me I was dead to her unless I helped her destroy you!"
"Paige, please... give me fifty thousand dollars so I can leave the country."
"I'll testify for you."
"I'll swear under oath that she forged Walter's diaries."
"I'll save you!"
Marcus moved in swiftly, grabbing Richard by the collar of his stained coat and forcing him face-first onto the hood of a parked vehicle.
"The only place you are going tonight, Mr. Vance, is the central processing precinct," Marcus said coldly, clicking steel handcuffs onto his wrists.
I looked down at the pathetic wreck of the man who had tried to break me.
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"You never could save anyone, Richard," I said softly as the sirens began to wail down the street above.
"Not even yourself."
