Chapter 5 - The Sunset Arrest
The drive to Cannon Beach took an hour and a half, the highway cutting through the dense, green pine forests of the Coast Range before opening up to the vast, gray expanse of the Pacific Ocean. I sat in the back of Reyes’s unmarked vehicle, watching the rain streaking across the glass.
My mother’s beach house was a mid-century modern masterpiece perched on the cliffs overlooking Haystack Rock. It was a place built on my father's life insurance money—money she had refused to share with me when I was struggling to pay for college.
The silver Mercedes sat in the driveway, its hood cold.
Two marked state police cruisers pulled up behind us, their lights silent but flashing. I watched from the window as Detective Miller and three uniform officers walked up the cedar steps and knocked heavily on the front door.
It took two minutes before the door opened.
My mother, Eleanor Whitman, stood on the threshold wearing a cream cashmere sweater, a glass of white wine in her hand. Even from fifty yards away, I could see the immediate transition on her face from patronizing annoyance to sharp, defensive terror as Miller displayed the warrant.
"What is the meaning of this?" her voice carried across the damp ocean air as she tried to slam the door.
An officer stopped it with his boot, stepping inside the foyer. Within seconds, her wine glass shattered against the slate floor, and her arms were pinned behind her back, the silver steel of the handcuffs clicking shut over her manicured wrists.
I pushed my door open and stepped out into the gravel driveway.
Eleanor stopped dead as the officers led her down the steps toward the cruiser. Her sharp black eyes locked onto mine, the elegance she cultivated vanishing into a sneer of pure rage.
"You did this," she hissed, her voice vibrating with malice. "You ungrateful little brat! Everything I did was for this family! Miles needed that capital! You don't deserve that brownstone!"
"You burned my home, Mom," I said, standing tall against the wind, my voice completely clear. "You tried to erase my life because you couldn't control it. You told me last night that my problems weren't your concern. Well, these problems are yours now."
"Miles will fix this!" she screamed as they pushed her into the back seat of the police vehicle. "He’ll hire the best firm in the state! You’ll have nothing left when we’re done!"
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The door slammed shut, cutting off her voice.
Reyes walked up beside me, watching the cruiser pull away. "Miles can't fix this, Claire. Because while we were driving down here, the federal registry flagged his corporate accounts for a secondary review. Your brother is about to find out what happens when the foundation drops."
