Chapter 23 - The Silence of the Phone
Derek sat on the edge of his narrow bunk during evening lock-in, staring blankly at the institutional gray wall. The visiting room log for the month showed zero entries under his inmate ID. His brother Marcus had relocated his family to the Pacific Northwest and changed his firm's name, effectively purging Derek from the family tree. Chloe had long since married a wealthy real estate developer and moved to London, her social media profiles polished and completely scrubbed of any past association. He reached out to touch the cold metal bed frame, realizing with crushing clarity that he had traded an authentic, devoted life for phantoms who vanished the moment the ledger hit zero.
