The paramedics carefully lifted Clara onto the gurney, rolling her out toward the waiting ambulance[cite: 1]. Caleb walked alongside her, holding her hand while his family attorney, Arthur Vance, pulled up in a sleek black sedan.
Arthur: Caleb! I just got the alert from your security server! Is Clara alright?!
Caleb: The baby's heart rate is stable, but they're taking her to Dallas Memorial for emergency observation.
Arthur: Did the police take Victoria into custody?
Caleb: She's in the back of that cruiser right now. They caught the whole thing on the flag frame camera[cite: 1].
Arthur: Thank God you kept that secondary system running. Caleb... there's something else you need to know about why she did this today.
Caleb: What do you mean?
Arthur: I received the final forensic audit from your father's estate accounts an hour ago. Victoria didn't just want the mansion—she was entirely broke.
Clara: Broke? But she wears fifty-thousand-dollar diamond necklaces...
Arthur: All rented, Mrs. Sterling. Over the last three years, Victoria accumulated six million dollars in private gambling debts across Las Vegas and Monte Carlo.
Caleb: Six million dollars?! How was she paying the interest?
Arthur: She was siphoning funds from the family trust using forged signatures. But your father's original will had a strict survivorship clause.
Caleb: Explain the clause, Arthur.
Arthur: If you produced a biological heir before your thirty-fifth birthday, eighty percent of the Sterling estate automatically froze and transferred into a protected trust for the child.
Clara: So... if I lost the baby... the money would stay under Victoria's control?
Arthur: Exactly. If Clara didn't carry this pregnancy to term, Victoria would have retained full managerial control over the estate accounts for another five years—plenty of time to cover up her embezzlement.
Caleb: She tried to murder my wife and child for money... she shoved a pregnant woman over a balcony for cash!
Arthur: It gets worse, Caleb. I reviewed the estate records from the week your father passed away in the hospital.
Caleb: What did you find, Arthur?
Arthur: Your father didn't die of natural heart failure. Victoria requested a quiet cremation before an autopsy could be performed, but the medical records show she altered his daily medication doses three days before he signed the original trust amendment.
Clara: Oh my God... she killed your father too?!
Caleb: Arthur, call the District Attorney immediately. Tell him we are bringing full capital murder charges against Victoria Sterling for my father's death and the attack on Clara.
Arthur: I'm already on it, Caleb. The DA is personal friends with your family. He won't grant her bail under any circumstances.
Caleb leaned into the back of the ambulance, pressing a soft kiss against Clara's forehead as the paramedics prepared to close the doors.
Caleb: I'm riding with you to the hospital, Clara. You'll never have to feel unsafe again.
Clara: Caleb... my knees are shaking so badly... I kept seeing the floor rushing up to hit me...
Caleb: I caught you, Clara. I will always catch you. I swear on my life, no one will ever hurt our family again.