Chapter 8 - Taken By The StateThe drive from the Plaza Hotel to my estate took twenty minutes, but it felt like a suffocating, agonizing eternity. Julian drove my Range Rover like a madman, blowing through red lights and swerving past traffic, his jaw set so hard I thought his teeth might shatter. I sat in the passenger seat, my hands trembling violently, clutching the forged psychiatric evaluation.
When we finally skidded through the open iron gates of the estate, my worst nightmare was playing out on the front lawn.
Three police cruisers with their lights flashing were parked on the circular driveway. Thomas and his security team were standing in a tense standoff with six armed police officers. But the sight that brought me to my knees was the two unmarked black SUVs parked near the front door.
Two women in beige suits—Child Protective Services—were walking down the front steps. One was carrying Leo. The other was carrying Maya.
“No!” I screamed, throwing the car door open before Julian even put the vehicle in park. I tripped over the hem of my crimson gown, scraping my knees on the gravel, but I didn't feel the pain. I scrambled up and ran toward them. “Stop! Put them down! Those are my babies!”
“Ma’am, step back!” a police officer shouted, stepping into my path and holding up a heavy hand.
“Get your hands off her!” Julian roared, sprinting up behind me and shoving the officer’s arm away. Julian stepped in front of me, instantly shifting into his ruthless attorney persona. “I am Julian Vance, lead counsel for Ms. Mercer. You are trespassing on private property and executing a fraudulent removal order. If you put those children in those vehicles, I will personally sue this city and every officer here for civil rights violations!”
The lead CPS worker turned around. She looked sympathetic but resolute. “Mr. Vance, we have an emergency ex parte order signed by a Superior Court Judge, backed by a sworn medical evaluation from a licensed physician stating that Ms. Mercer is experiencing violent psychotic episodes. We are required by law to remove the children for their immediate safety.”
“It’s a forgery!” I sobbed, pushing past Julian, desperate to reach my children. Leo was crying, reaching his chubby little arms toward me. Maya was shrieking in terror at the strangers holding her. Every cry was a knife twisting directly into my heart. “Daniel Mercer paid off that doctor! Look at me! I am perfectly sane! Please, please don't take them!”
“Mommy!” Leo wailed, his face red and streaked with tears.
“Emily, stop,” Julian grabbed my shoulders, pulling me back with agonizing force. “If you fight the police right now, they will arrest you. It will only validate Daniel’s narrative that you are unstable. You have to let them go.”
“No, Julian, please!” I begged, falling against his chest, the tears ruining my makeup, my heart breaking into a million irreparable pieces. “They’re scared! They need me! Don't let them take my babies!”
“I will get them back, Emily. I swear on my life, I will get them back by tomorrow,” Julian said, his voice breaking with his own unshed tears as he held me tightly against him.
I was forced to stand there, paralyzed by the cruel machinery of the legal system, as the social workers strapped my screaming, terrified children into car seats. They closed the heavy doors of the SUVs, cutting off the sound of my babies' cries.
The vehicles rolled down the driveway, escorted by the police cruisers, their red and blue lights disappearing into the darkness of the night.
I collapsed onto the gravel driveway, the luxurious crimson fabric of my gown pooling around me in the dirt. I had lost everything all over again. Daniel had found the one chink in my impenetrable armor. He had used the very system designed to protect children to rip mine away from me.
Julian knelt beside me, wrapping his arms around my shaking body.
I stayed on the ground for five minutes, letting the grief and the shock wash over me like a tidal wave. But as the cold night air hit my tear-stained face, the grief began to mutate. The devastating sorrow hardened, crystallizing into a dark, terrifying, and absolute rage.
I stopped crying. I slowly stood up, brushing the dirt off my dress.
Daniel thought he had broken me. He thought because he had stolen my children under the cover of night, he had won the war. But he had forgotten who I was. I was the woman who had clawed her way back from the brink of death. I was the CEO who had ruthlessly purged a toxic empire.
“Julian,” I said, my voice shockingly calm, void of any emotion.
Julian looked at me, surprised by the sudden shift in my demeanor. “Emily?”
“Daniel thinks he’s playing a game of chess,” I said, looking down the dark driveway where my children had been taken. “But he just flipped the board. Find Vanessa. Find out where she’s living. Daniel couldn't have afforded to pay off Dr. Evans alone. He’s broke. Someone financed this operation, and I am willing to bet my life that Vanessa knows where his skeletons are buried.”
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Julian nodded, pulling his phone out. “I’m on it.”
I looked up at the night sky. Daniel wanted to see a monster? I was about to show him exactly how terrifying a mother could be.
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