The Trash Takes Itself Out Full Novel

While Rebecca was rediscovering peace and love on the coast, the prison walls of the Upstate Federal Correctional Institution held a very different reality for Daniel Vance.

Daniel sat in the prison library, staring at a small television mounted on the wall. The local news channel was airing a special segment on 'The Transformation of Sterling-Vance Enterprises.'

On the screen was Rebecca, looking gorgeous and radiant beside Gabriel at a recent charity gala for pediatric heart research. The news anchor was praising their foundation, calling them 'Manhattan’s most influential power couple of purpose.'

Daniel’s hand squeezed his plastic pen so hard it snapped in half, black ink spilling across his knuckles.

"Looking at your ex-wife?" a deep, raspy voice growled behind him.

Daniel turned to see Victor Sterling sitting down across from him at the wooden library table. Victor looked terrible. His hair was cropped short, his face was gaunt, and his blue prison jumpsuit hung loosely over his once-refined frame.

"She gave everything to Gabriel," Daniel muttered bitterly, his voice laced with venom. "My company, my status... even my own brother."

"Gabriel was always waiting in the wings," Victor sneered, tapping his fingers on the table. "He was always the 'good doctor,' while you and I were the ambitious ones."

"I don't care about Gabriel!" Daniel snapped under his breath. "I want my money back! I served six months already, Victor! My appeal was rejected yesterday! The judge refused to reduce my sentence!"

Victor leaned closer, lowering his voice so the corrections officers nearby couldn't hear. "The appeal was never going to work, Daniel. But there is another way out."

Daniel narrowed his eyes. "What are you talking about?"

"Before I was brought in," Victor whispered, his eyes glinting with dangerous malice, "I placed five million dollars in an offshore trust in Liechtenstein under a fake beneficiary name. The federal marshals missed it."

Daniel’s heart skipped a beat. "Five million?"

"Yes," Victor said. "And I have a contact in Switzerland who can activate the transfer to a private legal defense fund in Panama. With that money, we can hire a team of international appeals specialists who can challenge the jurisdiction of the federal indictment."

Daniel stared at Victor, a desperate, familiar hunger rising within him once again. "What do you need me to do?"

"I need your signature on the original Aegis liquidation form," Victor instructed. "You still hold the primary signatory rights on the secondary shell entity. If you sign it over to my contact, we split the five million fifty-fifty when we get out."

Daniel hesitated for a brief second. He remembered Julian’s warning in the visitation room. He remembered the cold steel handcuffs. But the thought of rotting in a cell while Rebecca and Gabriel lived in luxury was a poison that consumed every shred of his sanity.

"Give me the paper," Daniel whispered greedily.

Victor grinned—a cold, parasitic smile that proved he had learned nothing from his ruin. He slipped a small folded sheet of paper across the wooden table.