Chapter 5 - The Confrontation at Central Booking
The interrogation room at the county holding facility smelled of stale coffee, industrial floor wax, and defeat. My mother sat behind the metal table in a bright orange jumpsuit, her hair unkempt, her designer makeup smeared across her sagging cheeks. When the heavy door clicked shut behind me, she shot up from her chair, rattling the chain linked from her wrists to the table ring.
"Connor!" she barked, her voice carrying the same authoritative sting she had used on me throughout my childhood. "Do you have any idea what they put me through last night? They made me sleep on a metal cot! The guards wouldn't even fetch my blood pressure medication! Call your attorney and post our bail immediately!"
I didn't sit down. I stood across from her, hands in the pockets of my overcoat, watching her with a calm detachment that threw her off guard.
"Amy is at the hospital with Frederick," I said quietly. "Frederick has severe RSV. He nearly stopped breathing because you wouldn't allow Amy to leave the house to buy his medicine."
Evelyn waved her cuffed hands dismissively. "Oh, stop being so dramatic. Babies get runny noses all the time. Amy was using that child as an excuse to avoid her duties! I invited our entire social circle over to celebrate your success, and she couldn't even manage to serve the roast on time without sniffling!"
"Duties?" I raised an eyebrow. "Amy is my wife, Evelyn. She is the mother of my son. She is not your servant, and she is certainly not your punching bag."
"She is a nobody!" Evelyn snarled, slamming her fists onto the metal table. "She grew up in foster homes! She doesn't have a penny to her name! She trapped you with that child so she could live in luxury while your own mother is left living on a measly fixed pension! Your father promised me that house would always belong to me!"
"My father bought that house with his own life insurance payout after divorcing you for infidelity twelve years ago," I reminded her, watching her face pale. "You never had a claim to it. You never had a right to step foot across that threshold without an invitation."
"I am your mother!" she shrieked, veins pulsing against her neck. "You owe me everything! I gave up my youth for you! You can't put your own flesh and blood in prison for a silly piece of paper!"
"It's not a silly piece of paper, Evelyn," I said, leaning forward until my eyes locked directly onto hers. "It's felony forgery. It's grand larceny. It's conspiracy to commit human trafficking by threatening to steal my child."
Her jaw dropped slightly. The smug certainty that had defined her entire existence began to fracture.
"I heard the audio file, Mother," I continued, speaking every word with chilling clarity. "'We take everything. Connor will thank us once we remove that woman from his life.' You actually thought you could fabricate a legal reason to declare me mentally incompetent and take Frederick from Amy."
"Connor... that was... Mason took things too far," she stammered, her voice suddenly shifting into a high-pitched, pathetic whine. "Mason came up with all of that! You know how Mason is, he has those debts with the bookies! I was only trying to protect your assets from his bad influences! I was trying to save you!"
"Save me?" I let out a dry, bitter laugh. "You wore Amy's wedding ring to jail, Evelyn. The arresting officer had to pry it off your finger during intake."
She pulled her hands beneath the table, hiding her fingers.
"Detective Hernandez just arrested Leonard Croft in Jersey City," I stated. "Croft rolled on Mason within thirty minutes. Mason rolled on you fifteen minutes after that. There is no bail coming from me. There are no high-priced defense lawyers coming from my bank account. You are on your own."
"You wouldn't dare," she breathed, panic finally dawning in her wild eyes. "Connor, please! I'm an old woman! I can't survive in state prison! Clara! Dave! They'll disown you!"
"Dave's commercial haulage firm is being audited this morning by the State Department of Revenue based on the business records recovered from Mason's laptop," I said coldly. "And Clara is currently being investigated as an accessory before the fact."
I turned my back and knocked on the metal door for the guard to let me out.
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"Connor! Don't you walk out that door!" Evelyn screamed, throwing herself against the table, the chains clattering deafeningly. "Connor! I am your mother! Look at me! Look at me!"
The door clicked open. I stepped into the hallway, took a deep breath of the cool air, and didn't look back once.
