Chapter 2 - The cold interrogation
The cold metal of the handcuffs bit deeply into my wrists as I sat in the windowless interrogation room. Two hours had passed since they took me away from my crying daughter. The heavy steel door finally swung open, and a tall detective in a cheap suit walked in. He slammed a thick manila folder onto the metal table between us. "Your daughter is currently in the custody of Child Protective Services," he said with a cruel smirk. Panic seized my entire body. "Where is Lila, you need to let me see her right now," I demanded angrily. The detective ignored my plea and opened a laptop, turning the screen toward me. "We pulled the security footage from the nursing home yesterday," he explained. The grainy black-and-white video showed Lila standing next to Arthur Vance's wheelchair. I watched in absolute horror as my sweet daughter quickly slipped a small white envelope into the old man's cardigan pocket. "What did she give him?" the detective asked, slamming his hand on the table. "I have no idea, but she would never hurt anyone," I cried out. "Arthur Vance was a billionaire who had been living in hiding for ten years," the detective revealed. I stared at him in complete shock. "Yesterday morning, he contacted his lawyers and left his entire estate to a fourteen-year-old girl he just met," he continued. My mind raced as I tried to process this impossible information. "You found out about the money, and you forced her to poison him before he could change his mind," the detective accused. "That is an absolute lie," I screamed at him. The detective leaned forward, his face inches from mine. "Then you should know that your daughter just confessed," he whispered. "She told CPS that you threatened to beat her if she did not put the deadly powder in his pie."
