The Billionaire's Mistake (Anya and Daniel)

Chapter 166: Martin’s Only son

The man’s only response was to offer Carr an insolent smirk or turning away as he was marched out of the room. The detective scowled clearly he w

crack.

going to be a tough nut to

But as the adrenaline began to wear off, Carr felt his mouth curve into a vindicated smile. Sure, it might take some work to get their would–be assassin talking. But they’d done the hard part

apprehending him before he could inflict any actual harm.

With the pillow brandished as grisly evidence in hand, Carr strode from the hospital room with a sense of victory thrumming through his veins. One way or another, they’d get to the bottom of who had put this hit out on Martin Jones…and they would bring both perpetrators to justice for their sickening transgressions.

Gina paced a restless track across the dingy living room of her small apartment, her agitation seeming to thrum through the very air around her. Every few moments, she would pause to shoot a furtive glance towards the front door, as if expecting it to burst open at any second.

“Will you quit that racket?” her son Ben grumbled from where he sat slumped on the beat–up sofa. “You’re making me dizzy just watching you wear a trench into the floor.”

The boy kept his sullen gaze fixed on the flickering television screen, steadfastly ignoring his mother’s manic behaviors. In truth, he’d been tuning her out more often than not these days ever since that terrible night when she’d exploded on him for daring to ask about the aftermath of his father’s injuries.

A part of Ben still couldn’t quite accept that his once put–together, sophisticated mother had devolved into this high–strung, perpetually anxious shadow of herself. Something had fundamentally snapped inside Gina’s psyche after she and Ben had been forced from the lavish family home by Ben’s cold–hearted older sister Emma. His mother seemed to vacillate between bitter rage towards his sister one moment, and overwhelming fear about something else entirely the next.

“You know, a little compassion from your own son wouldn’t kill you,” Gina snapped, shooting him a withering glare as she prowled another tight circle around the room. “I’m going through a very difficult situation here, in case you haven’t noticed!”

Ben’s only response was a derisive snort as he stubbornly averted his gaze. His mother’s perpetual melodrama had long since robbed him of any remaining sympathy or attempt at understanding her mindset. As far as he could tell, the entire situation she was so bent out of shape over stemmed from her own misdeeds – her infidelity, her attempts to wrestle away assets and property that didn’t belong to her. He’d overheard enough blistering arguments between his parents before the terrible accident to know how toxic their marriage had

become.

The sudden blaring trill of the apartment’s doorbell punctured the tense silence surrounding

them. Ben instinctively shrank back against the couch, the sound making his insides twist

with inexplicable unease. His mother, however, seemed to freeze in place. momentarily before hurrying towards the door with jerky movements.

“Who is it?” she called out in a tight volce, peering through the security lens with narrowed

eyes.

Ben couldn’t make out the response from the other side, but his mother’s entire body seemed to deflate in resignation before his eyes. With shaking hands, she slid the deadbolt and pulled the door inward, leveling the guests on the other side with a mutinous glare.

“Just what is the meaning of this?” she demanded, though Ben could hear the undercurrent of thinly veiled panic in her tone.

His attention snapped back into rapt focus as two uniformed police officers barged into the apartment’s small entryway, one of them immediately retrieving a set of handcuffs from his belt.

“Gina Jones, you’re under arrest for the attempted murder of Martin Jones,” the female officer intoned grimly. Her partner stepped forward and grabbed Gina’s wrists, wrenching them behind her back with practiced efficiency despite her howls of outrage.

“No! You don’t understand, it wasn’t me! I didn’t try to kill him!” she protested wildly, her body contorting in a futile attempt at escape.

But even as the metal cuffs snapped into place around her wrists, Ben found himself rooted to the spot in numb shock. Attempted murder? Of his own father? The words seemed to float. through his mind in a surreal haze, disconnected from any tangible reality he recognized.

Distantly, he was aware of someone shouting, and it took him several long moments to realize the raised voice was his own.

“Let her go!” he demanded, finding his feet and crossing the apartment in three long strides to confront the officers. “My mom didn’t try to kill my dad! You’ve got it all wrong!

The two cops traded an inscrutable glance before one – the taller, stockier male – turned towards him with an expression of detached pity.

“Son, we have an eyewitness testimony implicating your mother, along with strong circumstantial evidence of her intent,” the man explained, his tone leaving no room for argument. “She’s being charged in connection with the attack that left your father in a c until recently.”

coma

Ben’s mouth dropped open in mute horror as his gaze swiveled towards Gina, pinned between the two officers but no longer struggling or screaming denials. Instead, she simply looked… defeated. Resigned, even, to the fate that seemed to be unfolding around them.

“Your…your father regained consciousness a few days ago,” the male cop continued in a gentler voice. “And he’s already told us everything about what your mother did to him.”

The ground seemed to shift and lurch beneath Ben’s feet as the air rushed from his lungs in one cataclysmic burst. His father – alive and awake after all this Time trapped in oblivion? And not only that, but he had personally implicated Gina as the one responsible for his injuries?

“No…” he heard himself whispering, heedless of the two sets of eyes now boring into him with matching pity. “That’s not possible…he would never…”

His words trailed off, cut short by the memory of his own father’s screams of agony after that fateful tumble down the staircase. Ben had tried in vain to block out the memory of how his mother had acted so nonchalant, so utterly unbothered by the tableau of her husband lying crumpled and bleeding at the base of those steps. Even in the moment, he had known in his heart that something was dreadfully wrong between them something that went so much deeper than the usual strains of married life.

As if in a trance, he lifted his gaze towards Gina, searching her face for some hint of the loving, devoted parent he remembered from his younger years. But all he found was the hollow shell of a stranger, her eyes glinting with banked desperation and…guilt? His breath hitched as realization

slammed into him with the force of a physical blow. How had he been so blind to the harsh truths unfolding before his eyes this entire time?

“Ben, I…” Gina began in a rasping voice, but her words seemed to die on her lips as she took in whatever expression had settled onto his features in that moment.

The female officer cleared her throat, effectively slicing through the unbearable tension of the standoff. “We also have Mr. Jones’s accomplice in custody from an attempted hit at the hospital,” she informed them both in a tone of finality. She adjusted her grip on Gina’s bound wrists, already turning to guide her from the apartment. “I’d advise against f charges, Ms. Jones. The evidence is stacked pretty high against you both.”

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As if in a waking dream, Ben could only stand in mute horror and watch as his own mother was marched away to face justice for unimaginable transgressions. Her eyes sought his in the span of a final, fleeting moment before she disappeared through the doorway. He had no idea what she might have hoped to convey with that look.