Chapter 3 - The Cold Truth
I walked into Daniel’s hospital room with heavy, deliberate steps. He was propped up in the adjustable hospital bed, monitors beeping steadily behind him, a cannula under his nose. When he saw me enter, a look of pathetic relief washed over his pale face, and he reached out a trembling hand toward me.
"Sarah... thank God," he rasped, his voice cracked and hoarse from the oxygen treatment. "Is Chloe okay? Please tell me our baby is okay."
I stood at the foot of the bed, keeping my arms crossed over my chest, refusing to take his hand. The silence stretched between us until the monitor beeped faster, betraying his rising panic.
"Chloe is alive because she had the sense to call me while she was choking on your lies," I said, my voice dead and cold. "Arthur."
Daniel froze. All the color drained from his already sallow cheeks. The trembling hand in the air slowly dropped onto the white bedsheets. The loving, careful husband mask he had worn for eight years cracked down the middle, revealing a hollow, terrified stranger.
"Sarah, let me explain," he pleaded, tears welling in the corners of his eyes. "That was before I met you! I was young, I got caught up with ruthless people on Wall Street! When the firm went under, I took the money because if I didn't, they were going to kill me! I came to this town to start over. I fell in love with you! Everything we built—our house, Chloe, our marriage—that was real! I swear on my life that was real!"
"You brought a target onto my daughter's back!" I hissed, leaning over the guardrail, my anger boiling over like hot grease. "You knew who Marcus Reed was! You knew Lauren was Marcus’s fiancée! When she asked to move into our guest room, why didn't you throw her out? Why didn't you go to the police?!"
Daniel swallowed hard, unable to meet my eyes. "Because if I called the police, they would run my fingerprints. They would find out who I was. I thought... I thought Lauren was just grieving. I thought she just needed family. But then two weeks ago, I caught her looking through my desk drawers. I disabled the garage camera so I could set my own traps to catch her stealing. I was going to wire the funds to a private broker and take you and Chloe to Europe before she could do anything!"
"You were going to run?" I laughed bitterly, the sound sharp and humorless. "Without telling me? You were going to uproot our ten-year-old child and turn us into international fugitives because you were too cowardly to face your crimes?!"
"I did it to protect you!" Daniel sobbed, clutching at my sleeve. "I love you, Sarah!"
"Don't touch me," I pulled my arm away with disgust. "You didn't protect us. You hid behind us. You used my house and my daughter as a shield so your past wouldn't catch up to you. And my own sister decided that forty million dollars was worth more than her niece’s life."
At that moment, the door opened, and Detective Ramirez stepped into the room with two uniformed officers. One of them carried a pair of heavy iron shackles.
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"Arthur Vance, also known as Daniel Bennett," Detective Ramirez announced, pulling a federal warrant from his jacket. "You are under arrest for grand larceny, wire fraud, identity theft, and money laundering. As soon as hospital staff clears your discharge, you are being transferred into federal custody."
Daniel began to weep openly, hiding his face in his hospital gown as the officers moved in. I didn't shed a single tear for him. I turned around and walked out into the corridor without looking back once.
