Chapter 5 - The Fall of Selena ValeWhile I moved into the high-security Sterling Estate in Lake Forest, the financial and social execution of Selena Vale was carried out with terrifying speed.
Stripped of Victor’s protection, her apartment seized, and her family's shipping permits revoked by my brother's legal team, Selena found herself completely ruined within seventy-two hours.
Desperate, humiliated, and facing eviction, Selena attempted to ambush me outside my private physical therapy clinic in downtown Manhattan on a crisp Thursday afternoon.
As I stepped out toward my armored sedan, flanked by Gabriel’s chief security officer, Selena ran out from behind a concrete pillar, her clothes rumpled, her hair disheveled, her face contorted in a mask of manic, hysterical rage.
"ELENA!" Selena shrieked, pointing a shaking finger at me. "YOU RUINED MY LIFE! YOU TOOK VICTOR'S MONEY! YOU TOOK MY APARTMENT!"
I stopped two feet from my sedan. I didn't run. I didn't scream.
I turned around slowly, my dark cashmere coat sweeping around my knees, my hazel eyes looking down at her with a quiet, weightless coldness that froze the breath in her throat.
"I didn't take your life, Selena," I spoke softly into the autumn air. "You threw your life away the second you answered a dying woman's call and laughed."
Two uniformed NYPD officers stepped out from the patrol car parked across the street, holding an official felony arrest warrant.
"Selena Vale?" the lead officer announced flatly.
Selena backed away, her eyes wide with terror. "What... what is this?!"
"You are under arrest for Criminal Extortion, Depraved Indifference to Human Life, and Accessory to Medical Endangerment," the officer declared, locking heavy steel handcuffs around her wrists behind her back.
CLICK. CLICK.
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Selena thrashed wildly, weeping hysterical tears as she was forced into the rear of the patrol car in total, public disgrace, surrounded by news cameras that captured her complete downfall for the entire city to see.
She was sentenced to six years in a state facility without the possibility of early parole, her name permanently erased from high-society circles.
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