Chapter 11 - The Confrontation at the Holding Facility
With the board under my control and the evidence safely in the hands of uncorrupted federal prosecutors—thanks to Aunt Victoria’s independent channels—I left the corporate tower and drove straight to the central federal holding facility. It was time for a family reunion.
The visiting room was a bleak, windowless space divided by a thick pane of reinforced glass, illuminated by flickering fluorescent lights. I sat down on the metal stool on one side of the glass, waiting patiently.
A few minutes later, the heavy metal door clicked open, and two guards led my mother into the room. She wore an orange jumpsuit, her hair unstyled, her makeup completely gone. Yet, even in a prison uniform, she walked with her chin held high, her eyes burning with the bitter, undiminished malice of a queen who refused to accept deposition.
She sat down on the opposite side of the glass and picked up the heavy plastic telephone receiver. I slowly lifted mine.
“You look terrible, Daniel,” she said, her voice distorted slightly by the speaker, dripping with the same condescending venom she had used in her mansion’s foyer. “Coming here to gloat? To show your ungrateful wife that you’ve finally managed to usurp the throne your father built?”
“I didn’t come to gloat, Mother,” I replied, my voice steady and cold. “I came to ask you a very simple question. Why?”
“Why what?” she snapped.
“Why murder my father? Why try to poison my wife and kill my unborn son? Was power really worth destroying everyone who ever loved you?”
My mother’s face twisted into an ugly sneer. “Your father was weak! He wanted to dismantle the very foundation of this family, to give our wealth away to charities and foreign investments just to ease his hypocritical conscience. He forgot that empires aren't built on kindness; they are built on blood, discipline, and absolute control. And you—you were just as weak, until that gold-digging parasite of a wife wrapped her claws around your neck.”
“Elena is a good woman,” I said, my grip tightening on the receiver. “She loved our family, and you treated her like an animal. But you won’t ever have to worry about her or my son again. You and Lucas will spend the rest of your natural lives behind bars. The federal indictments for corporate embezzlement, conspiracy, and the murder of Arthur Sterling—oh, did you not know? Arthur tried to flee, and your political friends had him silenced before he could cut a deal—will ensure you never see the sun outside a prison yard again.”
My mother froze. Her eyes widened slightly for a fraction of a second before she masked her panic behind a cold laugh. “You think you’ve won, Daniel? You think putting me away stops the wheel? The people who backed me, the syndicate that controls this city—they won’t let a boy like you dismantle decades of infrastructure. They’re coming for you. For your company, for your wife, for your precious baby.”
May you like
“Let them come,” I said softly, setting the receiver down on the metal cradle.
I stood up, looked at her through the thick glass one last time, and walked out of the room without looking back.
