Four Dallas police cruisers and an unmarked state vehicle roared through the front gates, skidding across the gravel.
Six armed officers stepped out into the bright daylight, led by Detective Marcus Miller from the Major Crimes Division.
Detective Miller: Daniel Sterling? We received your emergency priority dispatch from corporate security.
Daniel: Over here, Detective Miller. The suspect is standing right by the patio stairs.
Victoria: Marcus Miller! Thank goodness it's you! Tell these patrolmen to stand down! This is a domestic dispute!
Detective Miller stepped onto the stone patio, looking at Victoria's disheveled beige blouse with cold disgust.
Detective Miller: Keep your hands visible, Mrs. Vance. Do not attempt to move toward the house.
Victoria: Do not call me a suspect! Daniel assaulted me! He struck me in the face in front of my domestic staff!
Detective Miller: Under Texas Penal Code Section 9.32, reasonable physical force is fully justified to defend an infant from violent felony assault.
Victoria: Nobody was assaulted! The baby slipped while I was showing her the morning garden view!
Detective Miller: We have the 4K security footage from your terrace dome, Victoria. We watched you drop that child.
Victoria's jaw fell slack, her eyes darting between the armed officers as terror locked her throat.
Victoria: You... You watched the video already?!
Detective Miller: The live feed was routed directly to our dispatch center fifteen minutes ago, ma'am.
Detective Miller unclipped a pair of heavy steel handcuffs from his tactical belt, stepping forward with practiced authority.
Detective Miller: Charge one: attempted capital murder of a minor under six years of age.
Detective Miller: Charge two: grand corporate embezzlement and wire fraud exceeding forty million dollars.
Detective Miller: Charge three: felony bigamy and fraudulent execution of official marriage certificates.
Victoria staggered back against the stone table, her hand flying to her mouth in utter horror.
Victoria: Bigamy?! What are you talking about?!
Daniel: Did you honestly think I wouldn't check your marriage records in the Bahamas, Victoria?
Victoria: Mark signed the foreign dissolution papers four years ago! He promised me the registry was clear!
Daniel: Mark never filed those papers, Victoria. He kept the marriage active to blackmail your father.
Victoria: That cowardly, greedy little parasite! He swore on his life the record was burned!
Daniel: Mark surrendered the original certified Bahamian marriage license to the FBI two hours ago.
Victoria: He gave you the Caribbean documents?!
Daniel: Every single page, Victoria. Which means our wedding license in Texas was a criminal fraud.
Detective Miller: Which also means you have zero spousal immunity and zero claim to the Sterling estate.
Victoria's knees gave out completely, and she collapsed onto the wet flagstones in a heap of beige silk.
Victoria: You stripped away everything... I have nothing left to hire a private defense attorney!
Daniel: You have a court-appointed public defender waiting for you at the county courthouse, Victoria.
Victoria: Daniel, please! Look at me! We shared a home for six months! Have some mercy!
Daniel: Did you have mercy when you dropped a six-month-old baby off a thirty-foot balcony?
Detective Miller: Officers, secure the prisoner. Maximum felony restraint protocol.
Two uniformed patrolmen stepped forward, grabbing Victoria's wrists and wrenching them behind her back.
The cold steel handcuffs clicked shut around her wrists with a sharp, heavy double-snap that echoed over the patio.
Victoria: Ah! You're tearing the seams of an eight-thousand-dollar designer blouse! Let go of my arms!
Officer Davis: Hands behind your back, ma'am. You have the right to remain silent.
Victoria: Daniel, you weak, pathetic coward! I hope you rot in this empty house with your dead wife's ghost!
Daniel looked down at her with calm, unshakable disdain, stepping aside to let the officers pass.
Daniel: I am not alone, Victoria. I have my daughter, I have my family's honor, and I have the truth.
The officers hauled Victoria toward the front driveway, her designer shoes dragging through dirt and gravel.