Victoria backed toward the tall entrance doors, her eyes darting between the service exit and the elevators.
Victoria: If you call the police, Vince, you will destroy this company. The stock price will crash thirty percent by tomorrow morning!
Vince: Let it burn to the ground. Every single dollar means nothing if my wife has been suffering in a cage.
Victoria: She wasn't suffering! She was comfortable!
The confession slipped out of Victoria's mouth before she could stop herself, the words hanging toxic in the warm foyer air.
Chloe: You knew! You knew Mommy was alive!
Vince: Say that again. Look me in the eyes and repeat what you just said.
Victoria: I meant... if she were alive, hypothetically! You are twisting my words!
Vince: What did you do to my wife?!
Vince's roar rattled the glass chandeliers above them. He closed the distance in two strides, his hand clamping down on Victoria's forearm like a steel vice.
Victoria: Let go of me! You're hurting my arm!
Vince: You forced her car off the road that night, didn't you? You knew Clara had discovered the corporate embezzlement scheme in your accounting department!
Victoria: Clara was going to the federal regulators! She was going to send my father and me to prison for twenty years over a minor clerical discrepancy!
Vince: Stealing twelve million dollars from an employee pension fund is not a clerical discrepancy, Victoria!
Victoria: We were going to replace it after the initial public offering! Nobody was going to lose their retirement!
Chloe: Daddy, my phone is ringing again!
Vince reached down with his free hand, keeping his iron grip locked on Victoria as he swiped the screen on speaker.
Vince: Clara! Are you there?
A deep, calm male voice spoke through the speaker this time, backed by the distinct crackle of radio dispatch.
Deputy Martinez: Mr. Sterling? This is Deputy Martinez with the Bastrop County Sheriff's Department. We just breached the perimeter of cabin number four on the old lake road.
Vince: Deputy! Is my wife inside? Is Clara alive?
Deputy Martinez: She is alive, Mr. Sterling. Malnourished and dehydrated, but conscious and breathing. Paramedics are loading her into the ambulance right now to transport her to Austin Memorial.
Tears spilled over Vince's cheeks as a ragged, choked breath left his throat.
Vince: Clara... can she hear me?
Deputy Martinez: She's right here, sir. She wants to speak to your daughter.
Clara: Chloe... baby, Mommy is coming home. Mommy is safe now.
Chloe: Mommy! I kept the phone safe just like you told me! I didn't let her take it!
Victoria twisted violently, attempting to claw at Vince's eyes to break his grip, but Vince twisted her arm downward, neutralizing her instantly against the marble floor.
Victoria: You can't prove I put her there! The lease is under a shell corporation registered in the Cayman Islands!
Deputy Martinez: Actually, ma'am, we found your personal credit card receipts for the private nursing staff inside the cabin safe. The Texas Rangers are en route to your penthouse right now.
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