Chapter 5 - The Devil's Bargain
The dial tone hummed in my ear, mocking my desperate situation.
I had hung up on David the second he demanded my children.
I would rather rot in this concrete cell than hand Emma and Noah over to an abusive narcissist.
Marcus paced nervously outside the bars, running a hand through his thinning hair.
I told him we had to find another way to prove my mother was lying about the physical assault.
I closed my eyes and visualized every single detail of my mother's foyer on New Year's Eve.
I remembered the grand staircase, the chandelier, and the large decorative mirror hanging near the front door.
My eyes snapped open as a wave of pure adrenaline rushed through my veins.
My mother's wealthy neighbor had recently installed a high-tech security camera on his porch, pointing directly at her front door.
If the camera had caught my exit, it would prove I never pushed my mother down any stairs.
Marcus immediately rushed out of the precinct to track down the neighbor and secure the footage.
I sat in the cell for six agonizing hours, praying the neighbor had not deleted the overnight files.
Finally, the heavy metal door to the cell block clicked open.
A police captain walked in, holding a tablet and looking incredibly embarrassed.
He unlocked my cell door and offered a gruff, uncomfortable apology.
Marcus had successfully retrieved the footage, and it clearly showed my mother standing perfectly unharmed in the doorway as I drove away.
The assault charges were immediately dropped, rendering the CPS emergency order invalid.
I sprinted out of the police station and jumped into Marcus's car, demanding he drive me straight to Brent's house.
We arrived at Brent's sprawling suburban home, ready to take my children back by force.
The front door was wide open, swaying gently in the cold January wind.
I ran inside, screaming their names, but the house was completely empty.
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A single note was pinned to the kitchen island with a hunting knife, written in Brent's messy handwriting.
It said he had taken the kids to a secondary location, and if I went to the police, I would never see them again.
