Chapter 6 - The Reckoning at St. Catherine’s
The glass patio doors at the rear of the living room and the front oak doors were kicked open simultaneously.
"Police! Nobody move! Hands where we can see them!" Detective Thomas’s voice boomed across the house as five armed Allegheny County deputies flooded the room with tactical flashlights.
David panicked. He made a desperate lunge toward the side hallway leading to the garage, but Detective Thomas was faster. He tackled David across the leather sofa, forcing his arms behind his back with a heavy metallic snap of steel handcuffs.
"David Mercer, you are under arrest for attempted first-degree murder, corporate wire fraud, grand larceny, and obstruction of justice," Thomas declared, slamming David’s face against the polished wood of the table.
David thrashed wildly in the handcuffs, his face contorted in sniveling, desperate rage as he looked up at me. "Claire! You ungrateful bitch! I raised you! I helped your mother keep this family afloat after Arthur died! You're going to put your own uncle in prison over money?!"
I walked right up to him, leaning down until my eyes were inches from his.
"You didn't raise me, David," I whispered, every word dripping with absolute, unyielding coldness. "You stole my father's legacy, and then you unbuckled your seatbelt and watched me drown."
"You aren't my family. You're just a thief who ran out of luck."
My mother sank onto the hearth, sobbing hysterically, clutching her face in her hands as a female deputy stepped forward to serve her with an emergency federal arrest warrant for her role as a co-conspirator and accessory after the fact.
"Claire... please!" Diane wept, looking up at me through tear-stained eyes. "I'm your mother! Forgive me!"
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I looked at the woman who had watched me lie unresponsive in a hospital bed for six months while planning my legal erasure.
"I survived the river, Mom," I said softly, turning my back on her. "And I survived you."
