Chapter 13 - The Child He Came to Take
Gigi was with Melissa and Sophie at the child therapist’s office.
Police reached the building before Arthur did.
I arrived six minutes later.
Officers surrounded the parking lot.
The therapist’s office was on the second floor.
Melissa stood behind a locked door with both girls.
Arthur’s truck had been found abandoned three blocks away.
He was somewhere nearby.
Officer Ramirez ordered me to remain inside the patrol car.
I refused.
“That is my daughter.”
“And Arthur may be watching for you.”
“Then use me to draw him out.”
“No.”
“I am not hiding while he hunts a two-year-old.”
Nora grabbed my arm.
“Clara, running inside will not make Gigi safer.”
She was right.
I hated her for being right.
A police officer checked the alley.
Another searched the neighboring businesses.
Ten minutes passed.
Then twenty.
No Arthur.
A call came through the police radio.
A man matching his description had entered a pharmacy across the street.
Officers moved toward it.
The therapist’s office door remained locked.
Then Melissa called me.
Her whisper was barely audible.
“Someone is in the hallway.”
“Police are outside.”
“It’s not the police.”
A shadow passed beneath the office door.
Sophie covered her mouth.
Gigi began crying.
The doorknob turned slowly.
Melissa pushed a desk against the entrance.
A man’s voice came from the other side.
“Melissa.”
Arthur.
“You need to open the door.”
Melissa did not answer.
“Sophie wants to see her father.”
Sophie shook violently.
Arthur knocked softly.
“Sweetheart?”
She pressed both hands over her ears.
“Daddy is not angry.”
The door shook under a sudden impact.
Gigi screamed.
Police raced upstairs.
Arthur hit the door again.
The wooden frame cracked.
Melissa dragged both girls into the bathroom.
She locked it.
Arthur forced open the office door seconds before officers reached the hallway.
He ran inside.
The bathroom door was closed.
He kicked it once.
The lock bent.
He kicked it again.
Melissa held Sophie behind her body.
The third kick broke the door open.
Arthur stepped inside.
He held no weapon.
He did not need one to terrify them.
“Give me Gigi.”
Melissa stared at him.
“She is not yours.”
“She ruined everything.”
“She is two years old.”
“Clara used her.”
“No.”
“You used Sophie.”
Arthur looked at his daughter.
“Sophie, come here.”
She did not move.
His face changed.
“You heard me.”
Sophie lifted her chin.
“No.”
It was one small word.
But it stopped him.
Arthur stared at her as if she had become a stranger.
“You do not say no to me.”
Sophie’s voice trembled.
“Aunt Clara says I can.”
Arthur stepped toward her.
Melissa placed herself between them.
He raised his hand.
Before it came down, Officer Ramirez tackled him from behind.
Arthur crashed against the sink.
Officers pulled his arms behind his back.
He screamed my name as they dragged him through the office.
“Clara did this!”
I entered the hallway as they brought him out.
He saw me.
His face twisted with hatred.
“You think you saved them?”
“I know I did.”
“You’ll pay for this.”
“You already made Gigi pay.”
“No one will remember one slap.”
I looked toward the bathroom.
Gigi was crying in Melissa’s arms.
Sophie stood beside her.
“They will remember surviving you.”
Arthur lunged.
The officers slammed him against the wall.
He was taken away in chains.
I ran into the bathroom.
Gigi reached for me.
“Mommy!”
I held her so tightly she protested.
“I’m here.”
Sophie stood quietly beside us.
Then she pulled something from her pocket.
A small memory card.
“Daddy made me hide this.”
Melissa stared at her.
“When?”
“At Grandma’s house.”
Sophie handed it to me.
“He said nobody could ever watch it.”
The police examined the card.
It contained video from a camera inside Arthur’s home.
The footage showed him threatening Melissa.
It showed my parents coaching Sophie before the party.
It showed my father handing Arthur the fake medical report.
Then one final video appeared.
It had been recorded weeks before Grandma died.
Grandma sat across from Arthur.
She offered to pay every one of his company’s employees.
She offered to clear his legitimate debts.
There was only one condition.
He had to confess the fraud and enter treatment for his violent behavior.
Arthur refused.
Then he leaned toward her and said:
“If you take the trust from us, Mom will make sure you don’t live long enough to sign anything.”
Grandma stared at him.
“You would let your own mother kill me?”
Arthur smiled.
“I learned from this family.”
The video ended.
For the first time, Arthur’s defense attorney stopped calling his crimes misunderstandings.
He asked the prosecutor for a plea agreement.
The prosecutor refused.
May you like
The trial would begin in six weeks.
And every member of my family would finally have to tell the truth under oath.
