Chapter 2 - The Warrant Behind the Glass
The entrance doors swung inward before Julian could reach them.
Three uniformed officers entered first, followed by a tall woman in a dark navy coat carrying a leather case. She stepped carefully around the broken glass and surveyed the room without surprise.
Detective Naomi Price had warned me that she would not intervene early.
She needed the act completed.
She needed witnesses.
Most of all, she needed Julian to believe he still controlled the room.
His face tightened when he saw her.
“What are you doing in my house?”
Naomi’s gaze moved from his clenched fist to the blood on my mouth and then to my hands protecting my belly.
“This is Arthur and Beatrice Vale’s residence,” she said evenly. “You are not the sole owner.”
Arthur lowered his drink.
Beatrice’s gloved hands stopped moving.
Julian took one step forward, then seemed to remember the officers standing between him and the door.
“My wife broke into a private family event and attacked my guest.”
A laugh almost escaped me.
It hurt too much to let it out.
Naomi looked at Chloe.
“Is that what happened?”
Chloe’s smirk vanished. Her hand remained pressed to her stomach, but her fingers had begun trembling.
“I—I didn’t see the beginning.”
“You were standing three feet away,” I said.
Julian turned sharply. “Shut up, Clara.”
One officer moved closer to him.
Naomi crouched beside me without touching me.
“Can you tell me where you’re hurt?”
“My left hip. Shoulder. Lip.” I breathed through the tightness in my abdomen. “The baby moved after I fell.”
The words changed the atmosphere.
Even the guests who had pretended not to see me now looked afraid.
Naomi gestured toward the paramedics waiting outside. Two rushed in with a stretcher and medical bags.
Julian stepped into their path.
“She’s exaggerating. She always does this.”
Naomi opened her leather case.
Inside lay a printed warrant.
“This authorizes the seizure of all digital recording devices, phones, computers, financial records, and security systems located on these premises.”
Beatrice’s face hardened.
“For an argument between spouses?”
“No,” Naomi said. “For suspected financial fraud, identity theft, coercive control, evidence tampering, and conspiracy to misappropriate restricted trust assets.”
The room seemed to shrink.
Arthur set down his glass with great care.
Julian stared at me.
His confusion lasted three seconds before rage replaced it.
“You went through my files.”
“I went through mine.”
“There are no files in your name.”
“That’s what you hoped.”
The paramedics helped me sit up. Pain traveled across my lower back, sharp enough to blur the chandelier overhead.
Naomi noticed.
“Hospital now,” she ordered.
Julian reached for my wrist.
An officer caught his arm before he touched me.
“Don’t,” the officer said.
Julian pulled free, smoothing his jacket as though dignity could still be restored by straightening a lapel.
“This is my child. I’m coming.”
“No,” I said.
His eyes snapped toward mine.
It was the first time I had denied him in front of his parents.
Naomi rose.
“Mr. Vale, you are being detained while we determine whether charges will be filed regarding the assault witnessed here.”
“I barely touched her.”
The officer nearest the dessert table glanced at the wreckage.
“You threw an eight-month-pregnant woman across the room.”
“She provoked me.”
Naomi’s expression did not change.
“Keep talking.”
Julian finally understood she was recording him.
His jaw closed.
As the paramedics lifted me onto the stretcher, Chloe backed away toward the hallway.
Naomi noticed that too.
“Miss Mercer, leave your phone on the table.”
Chloe froze.
“I need to call my mother.”
“You may do that after we preserve the device.”
“I’m not involved in Julian’s business.”
“No one mentioned his business.”
Chloe’s face drained.
The words had come too quickly.
Naomi extended her hand.
After a long pause, Chloe placed a rose-gold phone into it.
The screen lit before Naomi could seal it in an evidence bag.
A message preview appeared beneath an unfamiliar number.
DELETE THE NURSERY VIDEO BEFORE THEY SEARCH THE EAST WING.
Naomi looked at me.
I looked at Julian.
He was staring at Chloe with naked fury, not surprise.
The nursery video was real.
May you like
And until that moment, neither Naomi nor I had known it existed.
📖 See what Chloe had recorded inside the nursery—and why Julian was more afraid of that video than the assault in CHAPTER 3. 👇
