Chapter 5 - The Police at the Double Doors
Before Clara could concoct another desperate lie, the heavy oak double doors of the mansion
swung open, revealing two uniformed police officers accompanied by Captain Reynolds. Chloe
had not only recorded the video on her phone; her quick-thinking instincts had also prompted
her to automatically transmit a live-stream alert to the local precinct’s domestic intervention unit
when she saw Clara approaching the baby carriage. Captain Reynolds strode into the grand foyer,
his eyes sweeping over the tense scene before locking onto Clara. “Clara Vance, you are under
arrest for attempted aggravated endangerment of a minor, child abuse, and filing a false police
report,” Captain Reynolds announced crisply as he pulled out a pair of steel handcuffs. Clara
shrieked like a trapped animal, kicking and thrashing as the officers pinned her arms behind her
back, dragging her across the very marble floor where she had orchestrated her vicious frame-
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up. As the police cruisers sped away into the night, the Vance household descended into a heavy,
suffocating silence.
