Chapter 5 - Shadows of the Past
Footsteps echoed sharply from the front hallway behind him.
“What do you think you’re doing in my home?”
Tessa’s voice shrieked through the quiet house, sharp and unhinged.
Andrew turned around slowly, stepping out of the basement cell and into the hallway. Tessa stood at the end of the corridor, her hair disheveled, her expensive sweater stained with coffee, holding a heavy porcelain vase in both hands like a weapon.
“Your home?” Andrew asked, his voice dead and cold. “You mean your prison?”
“She was a difficult child!” Tessa screamed, her face twisting into an ugly grimace as tears of pure rage pricked her eyes. “You don't know what it’s like! David left me with nothing! He stuck me with a kid I never wanted, an inheritance locked behind legal red tape, and bills I couldn't pay! I had to do what I had to do!”
“You locked an eight-year-old child in a crawlspace under the stairs,” Andrew said, taking a slow step toward her. “You broke her arm. You tried to poison her life.”
“She’s my daughter!” Tessa screamed, raising the porcelain vase above her head. “I gave birth to her! I can do whatever I want with her!”
“No,” a new voice echoed from the front door.
Tessa froze, her arms trembling as she spun around.
Standing in the shattered doorway of the front entrance were two Oregon State Police troopers, their hands resting calmly on their holstered sidearms, flanked by a child protective services investigator.
“Tessa Mercer?” the lead trooper asked, stepping into the hallway. “You’re under arrest for felony child abuse, unlawful imprisonment, and the suspected disappearance of David Mercer.”
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Tessa’s face turned the color of ash. The heavy porcelain vase slipped from her fingers, shattering against the hardwood floor with a deafening crash.
She didn't run. She didn't scream anymore. She simply dropped to her knees in the wreckage of the vase, staring blankly at the floor as the heavy steel cuffs clicked around her wrists.
