Chapter 5 - Behind Bars and Out of Time
The transition from upper-middle-class comfort to absolute destitution was swift and brutal.
Within forty-eight hours, Victor and his parents found themselves locked inside holding cells at the municipal detention center, awaiting formal arraignment on multiple felony charges: domestic violence, aggravated assault, conspiracy, and extortion.
Julian’s legal team had ensured that no bail bondsman in the state would touch their case. They were deemed flight risks and public menaces.
In the damp, concrete holding cell, the atmosphere was thick with recrimination and despair.
"This is all your fault, Victor!" Helena shrieked, pacing back and forth across the narrow floor, her hair disheveled and her designer suit wrinkled beyond recognition. "You couldn't control your temper! You had to swing that cane!"
"My fault?" Victor snapped, jumping up from the metal bench. "You were the one cheering me on! You told me to teach her respect!"
"Shut up, both of you!" Raul shouted, burying his face in his hands. He looked ten years older, his skin grey and sunken. "We're ruined. Everything we spent thirty years building... gone in twelve hours. The house, the cars, the accounts... Julian Vance didn't just defeat us. He erased us."
Nora sat in the corner, clutching her knees to her chest, sobbing hysterically. "My phone... they took my phone. All my social media accounts are deleted. My friends have blocked me. Everyone is laughing at us online."
"Because you brought this on yourselves," a cold voice echoed from outside the cell bars.
They all looked up.
Standing in the corridor, flanked by two armed prison guards, was Julian Vance. He looked into the cell as though inspecting pests in a basement.
"Mr. Vance!" Victor rushed to the bars, grabbing the cold steel with both hands, desperation contorting his face. "Please! Have mercy! We'll give a public apology! We'll sign a divorce agreement right now! Just let us go!"
Julian stared at him with chilling indifference.
"Mercy?" Julian asked quietly. "Did you show mercy when she begged you for one minute of rest while carrying your child? Did you show mercy when you struck her with a wooden cane?"
Victor opened his mouth, but no words came out.
"The trial begins next week," Julian continued, turning his back on them. "My prosecutors are asking for the maximum sentences. Twenty years for you, Victor. And enough financial restitution claims to ensure that even when you get out of prison, every penny you ever earn for the rest of your natural life will be funneled directly into a trust fund for my grandchild."
"You can't do this!" Helena screamed, throwing herself against the bars. "You're a monster!"
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"No," Julian said, pausing without looking back. "I am a father."
With that, he walked down the corridor, his footsteps echoing into the silence, leaving them to the dark reality they had forged with their own hands.
