Chapter 7 - The Fracture
In the cold, sterile interview room of the county jail, the united front between mother and son dissolved into pure malice.
Eleanor sat across from her attorney, her voice rising into a hysterical shriek. “I did what he told me to do! Marcus told me Sarah was trying to steal our money! He brought the cage! He bought the welding kit! Why am I being charged with attempted murder?!”
“Mrs. Vance, sit down,” Sterling said sharply. “The prosecution has you on tape telling Marcus to leave her without water for forty-eight hours to ‘break her spirit.’ That constitutes active torture and conspiracy to commit murder.”
“I was under his influence!” Eleanor wept, her hands clutching her jumpsuit collar. “He threatened to cut off my allowance! He promised me if I helped him get Sarah’s inheritance, he would buy me the house in Palm Beach!”
Across the hallway in a separate interrogation room, Marcus was singing a completely different tune to his own court-appointed co-counsel.
“My mother planned it all!” Marcus snapped, slamming his cuffed hands onto the steel table. “She hated Sarah from day one! She’s the one who kept the key! She’s the one who suggested locking her downstairs so the neighbors wouldn’t hear her complaining!”
What neither of them realized was that Prosecutor Vance had positioned confidential recording devices in both rooms during attorney-client consultation breaks—and the two monsters were eagerly destroying each other.
Two days later, Eleanor’s attorney approached the State with an offer.
“Eleanor Vance is willing to plead guilty to accomplice to kidnapping and testify fully against her son Marcus,” Sterling announced in Vance’s office. “In exchange, we want the attempted murder charge dropped and a maximum sentence of fifteen years.”
Prosecutor Vance leaned back in his leather chair, a slow, cold smile spreading across his face.
May you like
“Ten years without parole,” Vance offered brutally. “She testifies against Marcus, admits to every detail on the stand, and surrenders every cent of her personal fortune to Sarah Lin as restitution. Take it, or she gets life alongside her son.”
Eleanor signed the plea agreement twenty minutes later.
