Chapter 3 - The Arrest
The cold metal handcuffs bit deeply into Mark's wrists as the officers pushed him against the police cruiser.
He screamed frantically that there was a massive misunderstanding.
His wife wasn't dead, she had just vanished from the hospital without telling him.
The lead detective stepped forward and held up a clear plastic evidence bag.
Inside the bag was Emily's blood-soaked maternity shirt.
The detective announced that it had been found hidden in the trunk of Mark's car an hour ago.
Mark felt the blood drain entirely from his face.
He realized someone had meticulously planted evidence to frame him for a horrific crime.
As he sat shivering in the freezing interrogation room, he desperately begged for his lawyer.
The detective ignored his plea and slammed a thick manila folder onto the metal table.
Inside were high-resolution photographs of Mark and Madison laughing and eating cake at the country club.
The time stamps proved they were celebrating while Emily was bleeding out in the surgical ward.
The hospital staff had testified that Mark intentionally ignored emergency calls for hours.
To the police, it looked like the perfect, premeditated motive to get rid of a pregnant wife and start a new life.
Mark desperately told them to go back to his house and check the nursery to see that the cribs were gone.
The detective raised a skeptical eyebrow and slid a new photograph across the table.
The picture showed the nursery exactly as it had been before Emily went into labor.
The cribs, the clothes, and the toys were all perfectly arranged in their proper places.
Mark stared in sheer horror, realizing someone had sneaked back into the house and staged the room while he was arrested.
He was trapped in an invisible web, and the spider was pulling the strings flawlessly.
Miles away, Emily smiled coldly as she watched the evening news broadcast on a flat-screen television.
Her husband's terrified face was splashed across the screen under a breaking news banner.
The tall man beside her chuckled softly in the dim light.
He praised Emily for her brilliant, ruthless, and perfectly executed strategy.
Emily replied that Mark was the one who had taught her how to be cold.
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Just then, a frantic nurse burst into Emily's private room with sheer panic in her eyes.
Baby C's monitor had suddenly flatlined.
