Chapter 3 - The Counter-Strike
By eight o'clock that evening, the comfortable silence of our home was restored, but twenty miles away in a high-end luxury apartment complex in downtown Phoenix, a very different scene was unfolding.
Vanessa had fled to the two-bedroom penthouse suite that Daniel had been paying $8,000 a month for. She sat on the velvet sofa, a glass of red wine in her shaking hand, while Chloe frantically paced back and forth across the hardwood floor.
"We're ruined, Van!" Chloe shrieked, clutching her hair. "Daniel saw everything! He saw the scissors, he saw the hair, he saw the paper from the clinic! If he cuts us off, how are we going to pay rent next month?! How am I going to pay for my college tuition?!"
"Shut up, Chloe!" Vanessa barked, though her own voice was trembling violently. "He was just emotional! You know how attached he is to that pathetic old woman! Once he cools down in a day or two, I'll call him. I'll tell him I had a panic attack, that his mother was manipulating me, that I acted out of fear!"
"He had the clinic paper, Vanessa!" Chloe yelled back. "You lied about being pregnant!"
"I'll tell him it was a false positive test!" Vanessa snapped, her mind racing desperately to build a new web of lies. "I'll say I was confused! Daniel loves me! He spent three hundred thousand dollars on my engagement ring! He won't throw away two years of our relationship over some hair!"
Just then, the electronic lock on the penthouse front door beeped loudly.
Vanessa’s face lit up with instant relief. "See?! That's him! He came to apologize!"
She quickly threw her wine glass onto the table, pinched her cheeks to make herself look pale and tearful, and ran toward the door, throwing it open with a dramatic sob.
"Daniel, my love, I'm so sorry—"
She stopped dead in her tracks.
Standing in the hallway were not Daniel, but four men in dark tailored suits, flanked by two uniformed police officers and a woman holding a leather briefcase.
"Vanessa Miller?" the woman in the lead asked sharply. She was middle-aged, with sharp gray eyes and a crisp, authoritative voice.
"Yes... who are you?" Vanessa stammered, taking a step back.
"I am Sarah Lin, senior legal counsel for Ferris Software Enterprises and personal representative of Daniel Ferris and his mother, Mrs. Evelyn Ferris," the lawyer announced coldly. She stepped past Vanessa into the apartment, followed by the police officers.
"What is the meaning of this?!" Chloe screamed from the living room. "You can't just barge in here!"
"This property is registered under the corporate lease of Ferris Software Enterprises," Attorney Lin stated smoothly, pulling a stack of legal documents from her briefcase. "As of 7:00 PM tonight, Mr. Ferris has terminated the lease. You have exactly thirty minutes to vacate these premises."
"What?!" Vanessa shrieked, her voice reaching a hysterical pitch. "You can't evict me! I live here!"
"You have no lease agreement in your name, Ms. Miller," Lin replied without a shred of emotion. "Furthermore, I am here to serve you with three separate legal actions."
She handed three thick papers directly to Vanessa, who stared at them as if they were burning coal.
"First," Lin detailed, "a civil lawsuit for breach of fiduciary duty, conversion of property, and grand larceny, regarding two antique Omega watches valued at forty-five thousand dollars, and a silver tea set belonging to Mrs. Evelyn Ferris, which our investigators tracked to a pawn shop in Scottsdale registered under your sister Chloe’s name two weeks ago."
Chloe turned bright red, letting out a horrified squeak.
"Second," Lin continued, "a petition for a Emergency Restraining and Protection Order prohibiting you and your sister from coming within one thousand feet of Mrs. Evelyn Ferris, her residence, or Daniel Ferris."
"And third?" Vanessa whimpered, her hands shaking so hard the legal papers rattled.
Attorney Lin looked at the uniformed police officer beside her.
"Third," Officer Ramirez stepped forward, pulling a pair of steel handcuffs from his belt. "Vanessa Miller, you are under arrest for Third-Degree Assault, Elder Abuse, and Harassment based on video evidence submitted to the District Attorney's office two hours ago."
"Video evidence?!" Vanessa gasped, her eyes widening in utter horror. "What video evidence?! The cameras were off!"
"The cameras were never off, Ms. Miller," Officer Ramirez said coldly, grabbing her wrist and pulling it behind her back. "We have full four-standard high-definition footage with crystal-clear audio of you holding scissors to an elderly woman's neck while threatening her. Turn around."
"No! No! Daniel! Call Daniel!" Vanessa screamed, thrashing as the cold steel handcuffs snapped shut around her wrists. "This is a mistake! Daniel loves me! Let me call him!"
"Mr. Ferris has explicitly requested that all future communications be handled exclusively through his legal team," Attorney Lin said, calmly closing her briefcase. "Oh, and one last thing, Ms. Miller. The three-carat diamond engagement ring on your finger? It was purchased using a corporate credit card belonging to Ferris Software. We have filed an immediate injunction to seize it as evidence of corporate embezzlement."
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As the police marched a screaming, weeping Vanessa out of the penthouse corridor in handcuffs, neighbors opened their doors to watch the downfall of the woman who had bragged for months about marrying a software tycoon.
Chloe was left standing alone in the middle of the empty penthouse living room, surrounded by cardboard boxes, with thirty minutes left before the locks were changed forever.
