Chapter 6 - Betrayal Among ThievesZ
Inside the concrete walls of the Douglas County Detention Facility, the air was thick with the smell of industrial floor cleaner, stale food, and hopelessness.
Arthur Vance sat on one side of the thick bulletproof glass in the secure visiting booth, dressed in an orange visitor jumpsuit, his ankle monitor bulging beneath his pant leg. He had been released on his one-point-five-million-dollar bond three days earlier—financed by mortgaging his primary residence—and had returned to the jail solely to meet with Victoria and their shared criminal defense counsel.
Victoria sat opposite him, looking haggard, her fingernails bitten down to the quick, her eyes blazing with frantic, manic energy.
“Did you sell the Denver property yet?” Victoria demanded through the telephone receiver, not even bothering to ask how Arthur was holding up. “Richard says we need at least three hundred thousand dollars more for the expert witness retainer! We need a thermal dynamics specialist who will testify that the steam room had structural air leaks! We need to prove she was never in lethal danger!”
Arthur stared at his wife through the scratched plexiglass. For forty years, he had bowed to her every demand. He had ignored her vicious insults toward his sisters, allowed her to alienate his lifelong friends, and stood by as she terrorized every woman Ethan had ever dated. He had believed that keeping her happy was the only way to keep their home intact.
“There is no money, Victoria,” Arthur said, his voice flat, exhausted, and hollow.
Victoria slammed her fist against the stainless steel counter. “What do you mean there’s no money?! What about the offshore trust? What about our savings?”
“The State Attorney General’s Financial Crimes Unit froze all thirty-six accounts yesterday,” Arthur said quietly. “They raided the house with a federal search warrant. They found your private ledgers hidden in the ceiling panels of the laundry room. They know about the Cayman accounts, the forged wire transfers, and the tax evasion.”
Victoria’s breath hitched, her eyes widening in momentary terror before snapping back into furious denial. “It’s a lie! Ethan will fix it! Call Ethan! Tell him to hire a federal attorney to contest the freeze!”
“Ethan signed the divorce papers, Victoria,” Arthur said, a bitter, tragic smile touching his lips. “He signed over the trust. He gave the District Attorney three thumb drives containing every text message, email, and audio recording you ever sent him. He signed a formal proffer agreement with the State this morning. He is testifying as the State’s key witness against you.”
Victoria’s jaw dropped. The plastic receiver slipped an inch from her ear. “Ethan... my baby... he would never betray me. Maya poisoned his mind! That ungrateful little witch manipulated him!”
“No, Victoria. We did this,” Arthur said, his voice rising slightly, carrying a weight of self-hatred that had been festering for decades. “You locked a pregnant girl in an oven, and I stood there holding my golf bag like a coward. When I was sitting in that holding cell for seventy-two hours, listening to the screams of other inmates, I finally saw you for what you really are. You are a cancer, Victoria. And you destroyed our entire family.”
“How dare you!” Victoria shrieked, pressing her face against the glass, her spittle dotting the surface. “I made you! I gave you a family! I ran your life when you were too pathetic to make a decision! You wouldn’t have a pension without me!”
“My lawyer met with ADA Marcus Vance two hours ago,” Arthur continued, ignoring her hysterical outburst entirely. “I signed a plea agreement.”
Victoria froze, her face turning pale as chalk. “You... what?”
“I pleaded guilty to Reckless Endangerment, Tampering with Evidence, and Aiding and Abetting Aggravated Assault,” Arthur said, a tear finally escaping his eye and cutting through the wrinkles on his cheek. “The agreement requires me to serve four to six years in state prison. But more importantly, it requires my complete, unvarnished testimony regarding your actions on the morning of June fourteenth.”
“You traitor!” Victoria screamed, throwing herself against the glass so violently that the heavy frame shuddered. “You pathetic, spineless coward! You’re putting your own wife in prison to save your own skin?!”
“I am going to prison, Victoria,” Arthur said quietly, standing up from his metal stool. “The difference is, I know I deserve it. But you will spend the next fifteen to twenty years at the Denver Women’s Correctional Facility, and you will die there completely alone. Ethan won’t visit you. Mateo will never know your name. And I am filing for divorce this afternoon.”
May you like
Arthur hung up the plastic receiver, turned his back on his screaming, thrashing wife, and knocked on the heavy steel door to be let out into the corridor.
Behind the glass, two correctional officers wrestled a wildly screaming Victoria Vance to the floor, pinning her arms behind her back as she shrieked obscenities, her manufactured world of status, control, and wealth completely incinerated around her.
