Chapter 1: The Charges
Chapter 1: The Charges
The emergency room was quiet except for the steady beeping of monitors.
Luke never let go of Natalie's hand.
Doctors treated the chemical burns on her palms, carefully wrapping them in fresh bandages.
The physician looked at Luke with a serious expression.
"Your wife is under extreme stress. The baby is stable, but another incident like this could trigger premature labor."
Luke nodded silently.
Inside, guilt crushed him.
How had he failed to notice what had been happening in his own home?
Meanwhile, Detective Harris questioned Eleanor at the house.
She insisted she had done nothing wrong.
"I was teaching discipline," she repeated.
"You young people call everything abuse."
The detective glanced at the photographs.
The locked laundry room.
The industrial cleaners.
The written cleaning procedure.
The bloodstains on the floor.
He simply replied,
"Mrs. Graves, you are under arrest for unlawful imprisonment and domestic assault."
For the first time all evening...
Eleanor's confidence disappeared.
"I want my lawyer."
As officers placed handcuffs on her wrists, neighbors stepped onto their porches.
Everyone watched.
The woman who had always claimed to be perfect was escorted into a police cruiser.
Luke stood beside Natalie's hospital bed.
"I'm so sorry."
She smiled weakly.
"You came home."
"I should've come sooner."
She shook her head.
"You came when I needed you."
For the first time in years...
Luke cried.
May you like
Not because of his mother.
Because he almost lost the family he loved.
