Chapter 2 - My Mother Chose the Lie
Corrine stared at me as if I were the criminal.
"Thane?"
Her fingers loosened. Alora dropped to the carpet and crawled backward, one hand shielding her belly.
Sloan came up behind our mother, the sledgehammer hanging at her side.
"You were supposed to be on a plane," she whispered.
"I know."
My voice sounded strange even to me—flat, almost calm.
Corrine recovered first. She always did.
"Thank God you're here," she said, rushing toward me. "Alora has completely lost it. She attacked me. Sloan and I came because she called us screaming."
I looked past her at my wife.
Alora's lip was split. One cheek was red. Hair had been ripped loose near her temple.
"Did you call them?" I asked.
She shook her head.
My mother made an offended sound. "She's confused. Look at her. Hormones, panic—"
"Stop talking."
Corrine's mouth fell open.
Sloan lifted the hammer. "Thane, you're making this bigger than it is."
"Put it down."
"It's not a weapon."
"You used it to attack my safe. Put it down."
Blue lights washed across the windows before she could answer.
Sloan let the hammer fall.
It hit the floor with a dull crack.
Within seconds, officers flooded the hall. I raised both hands, identified myself, and pointed toward the bedroom.
"My wife needs a medic first. I have video of everything."
Corrine started crying.
Not the angry fake tears she used at charity dinners. These were survival tears.
"Officer, my son is under that woman's control," she said. "He's not himself."
Alora looked at me from the floor.
Something in her eyes hurt worse than anything my mother had done.
She wasn't asking whether I believed her.
She was asking whether I would finally choose her.
I crossed the room and knelt beside her.
"I'm here," I said.
She flinched when I reached for her.
That small movement told me more than a thousand accusations could have.
A paramedic helped her onto a stretcher. An officer handcuffed Sloan after finding a loaded handgun in the suitcase beneath the stolen documents.
Corrine screamed that the gun belonged to me.
It didn't.
Then Detective Lena Ortiz walked out of the bedroom holding a sealed folder she had found beside the vault.
"Mr. Sterling," she said quietly, "you need to see what's inside this."
On the first page was my wife's name.
May you like
Under it were three words that made my blood run cold:
EMERGENCY CUSTODY PETITION.
