CHAPTER 5
Martha looked up slowly at the sound of the heavy door swinging open, her tired eyes blinking against the harsh glare. When she saw her daughter standing at the threshold of the holding area, a choked sob escaped her swollen lips.
"Victoria... oh, thank God," Martha whispered, her frail hands gripping the edges of the wooden bench for support. Victoria crossed the room in three rapid strides, dropping down onto her knees right in front of her mother with fierce, protective urgency.
"Mom, look at me," Victoria murmured, her voice softening into a tender, heartbreaking cadence as she gently touched her mother's bruised cheek. "Who did this to you? Tell me right now, and I will tear their entire world down to ash."
Across the room, Brooke froze in her tracks, her smug expression evaporating into a mask of pure, unadulterated panic. The color drained entirely from her face as she recognized the federal prosecutor kneeling before the old woman she had just framed.
The young man with the clipboard dropped his pen, scrambling backward off his chair as if trying to melt into the concrete wall. He pointed a trembling finger directly at Brooke, desperate to distance himself from the malicious conspiracy.
"It was her! Brooke orchestrated the whole thing!" the clerk blurted out, his voice cracking with panic. "She paid off a witness to lie and forced me to falsify the intake report!"
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Brooke tried to back toward the service exit, her designer boots clicking frantically against the tile floor as she sought an escape route. But before she could take two steps, two armed precinct guards—suddenly terrified of Federal Prosecutor Vance—blocked her path with stern authority.
"You aren't going anywhere, Ms. Miller," Victoria stated coldly, rising slowly to her full height. She turned her piercing gaze upon the blonde con artist, a terrifying smile forming on her lips.
