Chapter 7 - Arraignment in Silk
The arrest of Eleanor Miller did not happen quietly in the dead of night.
Although she was detained in the carriage house at 11:30 p.m., Daniel’s legal team strategically coordinated with the county prosecutor’s office to schedule her formal transport and processing for the following morning at ten o'clock—at the central district municipal courthouse, right during peak media hours.
News vans were lined up along the curb. After Chloe’s disastrous social media meltdown the previous day, the story of the "Wedding Car Grifter" had become national news.
Eleanor was led down the courthouse steps in handcuffs, wearing the same mud-stained silk blouse and trousers she had worn during her midnight vandalism. Her face was gray, sunken, and wild, her wrists held tightly by two deputies. Reporters shoved microphones toward her face:
"Mrs. Miller! Did you intentionally destroy a quarter-million-dollar vehicle?"
"Is it true you forged your daughter's signature?"
"Do you have a statement for Mia Vance?"
Eleanor screamed at the cameras, spitting with rage: "Mia is a traitor! My own daughter set me up! She poisoned her husband against me! She belongs in hell!"
Inside the courthouse rotunda, Chloe stood huddled in a corner behind a pillar, wearing a disguise of a baseball cap and dark trench coat. When she spotted Mia walking through the private attorney entrance—flanked by Daniel and Marcus Vance—Chloe sprinted toward them, tears streaming down her cheeks.
"Mia! Mia, please!" Chloe cried out, dropping to her knees directly in Mia’s path, ignoring the camera flashes popping from behind the glass partitions. "Mia, tell them to stop! They’re charging Mom with felony burglary, malicious destruction of property, and criminal trespass! They’re setting bail at a hundred thousand dollars! We don't have that kind of money! If she goes to prison, she’ll die in there!"
Mia stopped. She looked down at Chloe. For twenty-five years, this sight had always compelled Mia to surrender. Whenever Chloe cried, Mia was expected to give up her bedroom, her savings, her birthday gifts, her dignity, just to keep the peace.
"Get up, Chloe," Mia said, her voice devoid of heat, sorrow, or softness.
"Mia, she’s our mother!" Chloe sobbed, grabbing the hem of Mia’s tailored camel coat. "Family forgives! You have so much now! Daniel has billions! What is one scratched car to you? Just drop the charges!"
Mia pulled her coat smoothly from Chloe’s grasp.
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"The Maybach isn't a scratched car, Chloe. It was an assault on my life and my boundaries," Mia said, leaning down so only her sister could hear. "And you didn't care about family when you laughed at my wedding table and told me to ‘relax.’ You didn't care about family when you tried to steal my name at the dealership. You care about yourself. And for the first time in your spoiled, useless life, you are going to pay the bill."
Mia turned and walked toward the courtroom, leaving Chloe kneeling on the cold marble floor, sobbing under the blinding glare of the photographers' flashes.
