Chapter 8 - The Cornered Serpent
The silence that followed Victoria’s confession was absolute. Even the rain outside seemed to pause.
The two police officers stepped forward, unholstering their handcuffs. "Victoria Montgomery, you are under arrest for attempted first-degree murder, aggravated battery, and attempted infanticide. Put your hands behind your back."
Victoria’s eyes darted wildly around the room. She was cornered, stripped of her wealth, her prestige, and her lies. But a cornered viper is at its most lethal.
As the first officer reached for her wrist, Victoria reached into her scrub pocket and whipped out a concealed scalpel. With a savage slash, she tore through the officer’s forearm. The officer shouted in pain, stumbling back as blood sprayed across the floor.
"Nobody touches me!" Victoria shrieked, backing toward the bed.
Before the second officer could draw his taser, Victoria lunged toward Clara, aiming the scalpel directly at Clara’s exposed throat. "If I'm going down, Julian, you leave this hospital with nothing!"
"NO!" Clara screamed, throwing her arms up to shield her belly.
Julian reacted with the primal fury of a father and husband. He lunged forward, catching Victoria’s wrist mid-air. The blade stopped inches from Clara’s jugular. Victoria snarled, clawing at Julian’s face with her free hand, gouging his cheek with her fingernails.
"I hate you!" Victoria spat in his face. "I should have killed you when we were children!"
"You're not my sister," Julian growled through gritted teeth. With a violent twist of his body, he slammed Victoria’s wrist against the metal bedrail.
The scalpel clattered harmlessly to the floor.
Maya darted in from the flank, sweeping Victoria’s legs out from under her with a low kick. Victoria hit the linoleum hard, the wind knocked from her lungs. In an instant, the second officer and the hospital security guards pinned her to the ground, driving their knees into her back, ratcheting the steel handcuffs around her wrists until they clicked into their tightest notch.
"Get off me! Do you know who I am?!" Victoria screamed, thrashing against the floor, her cheek pressed into the cold puddle of potassium chloride she had brought to murder Clara. "I am a Montgomery! My lawyers will bury all of you! Julian! Tell them to release me!"
Julian did not look at her. He turned his back entirely, wrapping his arms around Clara, who was sobbing uncontrollably, shaking with aftershocks of sheer terror.
"Take her away," Julian said, his voice cold, final, and devoid of any brotherly affection. "And tell the District Attorney that the Montgomery family will spare no expense to ensure she spends the rest of her miserable life in maximum security."
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The officers dragged Victoria out of the room, her shrill, unhinged screams echoing down the corridor until the heavy double doors of the psychiatric holding ward slammed shut behind her.
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