Chapter 5 - The Public Execution
The corporate logo on the massive screen behind me suddenly vanished, replaced by a high-definition video feed.
The audio system of the grand ballroom didn't play music; it blasted the chilling, screeching voice of Patricia echoing from the mansion's living room three days ago.
"Let me make something completely clear to you, you pathetic peasant..."
The three hundred guests in the ballroom gasped in unison. On the sixty-foot screen, Patricia’s face was visible in terrifying clarity, her expression twisted in malice as she snatched the stuffed rabbit from my weeping daughter's arms and hurled it across the room.
"The wedding is in three months... Arthur sees exactly what I want him to see... By the time he returns, these little brats will know exactly who holds the leash..."
The silence in the ballroom became absolute, heavy, and suffocating. Every eye in the room snapped away from the screen and locked directly onto Patricia.
She stood up from her chair, her face draining of all color until she looked like a ghost wrapped in emerald silk. "Arthur!" she shrieked, her voice cracking as she looked around the room at the horrified expressions of her high-society peers. "What is this? This is a fabrication! This is an invasion of privacy! Turn it off!"
"The footage is entirely authenticated, Patricia," I said into the microphone, my voice completely calm, completely lethal. "It was recorded by the secure, closed-circuit servers of my estate. The estate you thought you were going to inherit."
Two men in dark suits stepped out from the shadows of the ballroom entrance—detectives from the family protection division of the Chicago Police Department, accompanied by Lawrence, my estate attorney.
"Patricia Collins," the lead detective announced, his voice carrying over the murmurs of the crowd as he approached her table. "We have a warrant for your arrest on multiple counts of child endangerment, psychological abuse, and felony intimidation."
"No! Get away from me!" Patricia screamed, her aristocratic elegance completely evaporating as she slapped a champagne glass off the table, shattering it against the floor. She looked up at me on the stage, her eyes wide with a venomous, unadulterated rage. "You ruined me, Arthur! You set a trap in your own house!"
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"You trapped yourself, Patricia, the moment you put your hands on my daughters," I said, stepping away from the podium. "Take her away."
The crowd parted like the Red Sea as the detectives clicked the steel handcuffs around her wrists, dragging her out of the ballroom while the cameras of dozens of socialites blinked, capturing her ultimate, public humiliation for the entire world to see on social media within seconds.
