Chapter 4 - The Execution of PowerThe struggle on the floor was violent, short, and deafening in the enclosed room.
My father fought with the frantic, terrifying strength of a man who knew his life was over if he ended up in handcuffs. He swung the crowbar wildly, striking Detective Cole across the shoulder, but Cole absorbed the blow, drove his knee directly into Hector's stomach, and pinned him flat onto the shattered glass covering the floor.
CLICK-CLACK.
The sound of steel handcuffs locking around my father's wrists echoed clearly through the room.
"Hector Santos, you are under arrest for attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, and obstruction of justice," Cole panted, his breath ragged as he hauled my father up from the floor.
Emergency backup lights suddenly flickered back on across the ceiling, blinding white light flooding the room.
Three more uniformed officers burst through the broken door, their weapons drawn. Behind them, hospital staff rushed inside, stepping over the broken glass to check my monitors.
My father was hauled to his feet. His rain jacket was torn, his face smeared with blood from a small cut on his cheek where he had hit the shattered windowpane. But even with steel cuffs locking his hands behind his back, he didn't look defeated.
He pulled himself up to his full height, smoothed his collar with his bound hands, and glared at me with pure, concentrated hatred.
"You think this changes anything, Valeria?" Hector spat, his voice echoing off the concrete walls as the officers dragged him toward the door. "I own half the judges in this county! I'll be out on bail before midnight! And when I am... you won't have a hospital wall to hide behind!"
"Get him out of here!" Cole ordered harshly.
The officers shoved my father through the doorway, his angry curses fading down the corridor until the heavy double doors at the end of the hall closed.
Detective Cole turned to me, wiping a line of blood from his own forehead where a piece of glass had caught him. "Are you okay, Valeria?"
"Where... where did you come from?" I breathed, my whole body shaking violently from shock.
"I didn't trust the floor security," Cole admitted, resting his hands on his hips as a nurse re-attached my IV line. "When the main power went out, I knew it wasn't an accident. Your father bribed a maintenance worker to trip the primary breaker in the basement. I used the fire escape access to reach your window."
He stepped closer, looking down at the shattered glass surrounding my bed.
"He said the drive wasn't under the floorboards in your room," Cole said quietly. "Valeria... where is the original hard drive?"
I took a slow, painful breath, looking at the detective.
"My mother," I whispered.
Cole frowned. "What about her?"
"Three weeks ago... I didn't hide the drive in my room," I said, a bitter, cold clarity washing over my mind. "I hid it inside the lining of my mother's favorite antique jewelry box—the one her mother gave her, the one she keeps locked on her vanity table. I wanted it somewhere he would never think to look."
Cole’s eyes widened. "Your mother has the drive?"
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"She doesn't know it's there," I said, tears leaking down my cheeks. "She thinks I'm a liar. She spat on my face because she thinks I made everything up to ruin my father. But if he gets bail... if he goes back to that house to search for it..."
"He'll find it," Cole finished the sentence, his face darkening. "And if your mother realizes what's on that drive... she becomes his next target."
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