Chapter 4 - The Rat Trap
Evelyn’s knees buckled. She collapsed onto the leather armchair, her expensive makeup ruined by cold sweat.
"Julian... please," Evelyn begged, her voice shrinking to a desperate whine. "I did it for us! I wanted Carter to have a future! I thought... I thought you loved me!"
"I married you because I thought you were a kind woman who would give my daughter a motherly presence while I worked," Julian said, his eyes void of any humanity. "Instead, you turned my home into a torture chamber for my only child."
"She's lying!" Carter shouted from the floor, his voice cracking with panic. "The girl is lying! We didn't starve her! We just made her work off her room and board! She's crazy!"
Julian stood up slowly. He walked over to Carter, stopping just inches from the young man.
"My daughter has second-degree chemical burns on her hands from the bleach your mother forced her to use without gloves," Julian said quietly. "She lost fifteen pounds in twelve weeks. She was sleeping on a concrete floor next to the boiler room."
Julian turned to Arthur. "Arthur, did you check the security camera archives?"
"Yes, Mr. Vance," Arthur replied, pulling a hard drive from his coat pocket. "Ms. Thorne attempted to delete the cloud backups yesterday, but our server room in Manhattan retains encrypted hard copies. We have sixteen hundred hours of high-definition video showing Ms. Thorne and her son physically assaulting Maya, verbally abusing her, and forcing her to perform manual labor while withholding food."
Evelyn let out a choked shriek, covering her face.
"Hand that drive directly to the District Attorney," Julian commanded. "Along with the financial audit."
"Wait! Please! No!" Evelyn scrambled across the floor, grabbing the hem of Julian's trousers. "Julian, I'll sign anything! I'll leave! I'll take nothing! Just don't send us to prison! Please, for the love of God!"
Julian looked down at her with pure disgust, pulling his shoe out of her grip.
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"You took three months of my daughter's life," Julian said coldly. "I am going to take thirty years of yours. Officers, take them out of my sight."
Four uniformed state troopers—who had been waiting quietly in the foyer—stepped into the study. Steel handcuffs clicked loudly into place around Evelyn and Carter’s wrists as they were dragged screaming out of the mansion into the pouring rain.
