Chapter 8 - The Venomous Strike
When Gabriel returned home that evening around six o'clock, the atmosphere inside the house was electric with tension.
Candice was waiting in the foyer. Her hair was disheveled, her eyes bloodshot with rage. A thick stack of declined transaction receipts was crumpled in her hand.
"What did you do?!" she screamed, marching toward Gabriel the moment he closed the front door. "My cards are declined! The bank told me my personal account is under a legal hold! Are you insane?!"
Gabriel casually unbuttoned his winter coat and hung it on the rack. "I cut off your fuel line, Candice. You don't get to spend my hard-earned money to ruin my son's life."
"You think you're so smart, don't you?" Candice hissed, stepping close to him. Her sweet, bubbly persona was entirely gone, replaced by a malicious, calculating sneer. "You think you can just march back in here after month on the road and undo everything I’ve built?"
"I know what you did to Arthur Vance," Gabriel said quietly.
Candice froze for a split second, her eyes widening, before a sinister smile spread across her face.
"Arthur was an old fool who died like a dog," she whispered chillingly. "And you’re no different, Gabriel. You think the courts are going to believe a rough, uneducated trucker over a grieving stepmother who stayed home to raise your traumatized kid?"
Before Gabriel could answer, Candice suddenly grabbed the collar of her own blouse and ripped it open. She smashed her own forehead against the wooden doorframe with terrifying force, leaving a red scrape above her eye, and began shrieking at the top of her lungs.
"Help! Somebody help me! He's killing me! Gabriel, stop!" she screamed, throwing herself onto the floor and knocking over a heavy glass lamp, sending it shattering across the entryway.
Gabriel didn't move an inch. He stood completely still, his hands in his pockets, watching her theatrical performance with deadpan stoicism.
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Outside, the faint wail of police sirens grew louder. Candice had called 911 before Gabriel even pulled into the driveway.
She looked up at him from the floor, wiping tears from her face, a triumphant smile gleaming in her eyes. "You're going to jail tonight, Gabriel. And while you're in a cell, Lucas goes straight to child services."
