Chapter 6 - The Extradition & The Bail Hearing
Five days after New Year’s Eve, Eleanor, Chloe, and Mark were transported back to New York in the back of a state extradition van.
The story had exploded across local and national news. Headlines dominated the tabloids: "MILLIONAIRE EXECUTIVE’S MOTHER AND SISTER ARRESTED FOR ATTEMPTED MANSLAUGHTER OF NEWBORN AND MOTHER IN FREEZING LUXURY PENTHOUSE."
The public outrage was absolute. Social media erupted with fierce defense of Maya, while online groups tracked down every business associated with Mark and Chloe, flooding them with thousands of scathing reviews.
The bail hearing took place at the New York State Supreme Court in lower Manhattan.
I sat in the front row of the gallery, wearing a sharp black suit, my posture straight and imposing. Beside me sat Harrison Sterling and Detective Marcus Miller.
When the side door opened, Eleanor, Chloe, and Mark were led into the courtroom in bright orange prison jumpsuits, their hands chained at their waists, their ankles shackled together.
Eleanor looked unrecognizable. Her manicured hair was messy, her makeup was gone, and her eyes were wild with humiliation and anger. Chloe was weeping silently, her hands trembling in her steel cuffs, while Mark kept his head down, trying to avoid the glare of the news cameras in the gallery.
As Eleanor stepped toward the defense table, her eyes locked onto mine.
She expected to see pain, anger, or hesitation in her son’s eyes. Instead, she found only a wall of impenetrable, icy stone.
“All rise!” the bailiff announced as Judge Patricia Vance took the bench.
The defense attorney—a public defender appointed after my lawyers froze all their assets—stood up nervously. “Your Honor, my clients are respected members of the community with no prior criminal records. We request reasonable bail set at fifty thousand dollars each so they can prepare their defense from home.”
The prosecutor stood up immediately. “Your Honor, the State strongly opposes bail. The defendants committed an act of unbelievable cruelty—leaving a post-surgical mother bleeding out and an eleven-day-old infant in sub-freezing temperatures while stealing their medical formula and communication devices. Furthermore, the primary defendant, Eleanor Vance, attempted to flee the jurisdiction to Florida using stolen corporate funds.”
Judge Patricia Vance reviewed the police report and watched the four-minute compilation video on her bench tablet.
As the judge watched the video of Chloe shoving Maya to the floor and Mark stepping over her with the formula, her expression darkened into profound, absolute disgust.
She set the tablet down and looked at the defense table.
“In my twenty-five years on the bench,” Judge Vance declared, her voice booming across the silent courtroom, “I have rarely witnessed such a shocking lack of basic human morality. To treat a vulnerable mother and a newborn infant with such calculated malice is monstrous.”
Eleanor opened her mouth to interrupt. “Your Honor, if I may explain—”
“Silence!” the judge barked, slamming her gavel once. “You do not speak in my courtroom, Mrs. Vance!”
Judge Vance looked at the clerk. “Bail is denied. The defendants will remain in custody at Rose M. Singer Center at Rikers Island pending trial.”
BANG.
Chloe collapsed into her chair, shrieking hysterically. “Rikers Island?! Mom, no! We can't go to Rikers Island!”
“David!” Eleanor screamed, wrestling against the bailiffs as they grabbed her arms to drag her toward the holding cell. “David! Look at me! I am your mother! You can't let them take me to Rikers! Tell the judge you forgive us! DAVID!”
I stood up slowly from my seat, looked Eleanor straight in the eyes, and slowly adjusted my suit jacket.
May you like
“You earned every single day in that cell, Eleanor,” I said quietly.
I turned my back on them and walked out of the courtroom while their screams echoed behind the heavy oak doors.
