Chapter 6 - Vivian's Desperation
Vivian Carter had managed to secure temporary release on an unsecured surety bond prior to the federal indictments landing, primarily due to her age and lack of an active criminal record. Accustomed to a life of pampered luxury funded entirely by her son’s fraudulent empire, the sudden freezing of her credit cards and the seizure of the family vehicles sent her into a spiral of hysterical rage. Convinced that I was still the fragile, cowed girl she had tormented for three years, she believed she could bully me into retracting the video evidence and dropping the criminal charges.
Disguised in a maintenance worker's smock and an old medical mask, Vivian managed to slip past the ground-floor security of the hospital during the evening shift change. She pushed through the double doors of the burn ward, her eyes darting frantically until she spotted my private room. When she shoved the door open, she found me sitting upright in an orthopedic chair, my bandages freshly dressed, flanked by Lena and Detective Alvarez, who had anticipated her exact line of thought.
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Vivian did not retreat; instead, she stripped off the mask, her features contorted in malicious venom. She lunged toward my bed, hissing that I was an ungrateful serpent who had ruined her son’s magnificent career, demanding that I sign an affidavit stating the boiling oil was a culinary accident. She brandished a crumpled document and a pen, threatening to tell the media that I had fabricated the video with digital manipulation software unless I complied immediately.
Alvarez did not even need to draw his weapon. He stepped between us, caught Vivian by both wrists, and pushed her firmly against the doorframe, clicking his handcuffs into place for the second time in a week. "Vivian Carter," he stated, his voice ringing out into the hall, "you are under arrest for felony witness tampering, violation of a standing order of protection, and criminal trespass." As she was hauled out kicking and screaming, her threats echoing down the corridor, Lena looked at me and smiled faintly. The Carter family had built their entire lives on intimidation; they simply did not know how to survive in a room where their targets refused to fear them.
