Chapter 41 - Bloodlines and Broken Chains
Two days later, Detective Ruiz called.
They had found her.
Bernice Bradley hadn't made it out of the state. She had been intercepted at a private airfield in upstate New York, attempting to board an unregistered charter plane bound for the Cayman Islands.
She was being held without bail at the Westchester County Detention Center.
Ruiz arranged for me to see her before her transfer to a maximum-security federal facility. Julian waited outside the interrogation room, giving me the space I needed to face the demon of my childhood alone.
When I entered the room, Bernice was seated behind a scratched acrylic partition, dressed in a coarse orange jumpsuit. Her hands were shackled to the metal table. Her hair, once styled with immaculate perfection, was greasy and matted with soot. Half of her left cheek was covered in a heavy burn dressing.
She looked up, and for a second, the old, venomous sneer curled on her lips.
"Have you come to gloat, Elaine?" she rasped, her voice damaged by the smoke. "To show off your little corporate crown?"
"No, Bernice," I said, sitting calmly across from her. "I came to look at you one last time. So I can remember you as you truly are: small, desperate, and alone."
Bernice let out a harsh, bitter laugh that ended in a wet cough.
"You think you’ve won? You think taking Arthur's money makes you safe?" She leaned forward, the chains clinking heavily against the steel. "You have your mother's eyes, Elaine. That same pathetic, naive look Clara had before she choked on her own blood."
My heart hammered against my ribs, but I did not blink. I did not flinch.
"You killed her," I stated, the final puzzle piece locking into place with chilling certainty. "You poisoned Clara Vance."
"She was weak!" Bernice hissed, her eyes wild with madness. "Arthur was blinded by her. He built an empire, and he wanted to leave it to a peasant girl and a bastard child! I deserved that wealth! Lucas deserved that legacy!"
"Lucas hates you," I said coldly.
The words hit Bernice harder than any physical blow. Her sneer vanished, replaced by an expression of raw, unadulterated shock.
"What did you say?" she whispered.
"Lucas went on national television," I continued, leaning in close to the glass. "He confessed everything. He renounced his claims to the Bradley trust. He gave the district attorney every tape, every bank account, every record you ever gave him. He told the world you were a monster. You didn't save your son, Bernice. You destroyed him."
Bernice’s face drained of color. Her lips trembled, and for the first time in my life, I saw true terror in her hollow eyes.
"He... he wouldn't..." she whimpered, pulling against the chains. "Lucas is my boy! I did it all for him!"
"No," I replied, standing up to leave. "You did it for yourself. And now, you will rot in a cage, knowing that the daughter you tried to erase owns every single piece of the world you killed for."
May you like
I turned my back on her screams and walked out into the light.
***
