Chapter 9 - The Last LaughThree months later.
The maximum-security unit of the federal detention facility in upstate New York was cold, gray, and smelled faintly of industrial disinfectant and stale coffee.
Victoria Sterling sat alone behind a heavy plexiglass partition. Her platinum-blonde hair was unstyled, showing stark silver roots at her temples. Her designer clothes were gone, replaced by a coarse, oversized orange jumpsuit that hung loosely off her frail frame. The woman who had once commanded Wall Street from a mahogany throne now looked like a ghost of her former self—hollow, defeated, and utterly broken.
The heavy metal door at the end of the visitor's corridor clicked open.
Footsteps echoed against the concrete floor. Avery walked up to the opposite side of the partition, wearing a crisp charcoal trench coat, her dark hair falling elegantly over her shoulders. She didn't look angry. She didn't look triumphant. She simply looked at Victoria with a profound, chilling indifference.
Victoria slowly raised her head, her eyes bloodshot, burning with a pathetic, residual flash of venom.
"You..." Victoria whispered hoarsely, her voice cracking against the glass. "You think you’ve won, don't you? You think taking the money makes you powerful?"
Avery didn't speak immediately. She reached up, slowly pulling off her leather glove, and placed her hand flat against the cold plexiglass separator.
"I didn't take the money to become powerful, Victoria," Avery said softly, her voice carrying clearly through the intercom speaker. "I took it so you would finally understand what it feels like to have nothing left."
Victoria slammed her fists against the glass, letting out a raw, desperate cry of rage. "I built this empire! I made my family untouchable!"
"You built a cage out of stolen bricks," Avery replied, turning slowly toward the exit without looking back. "And you locked yourself inside."
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As Avery pushed open the heavy security door and stepped out into the crisp autumn air, she took a deep, steady breath of absolute freedom.
Waiting for her by the black sedan parked outside the facility gates was Arthur, holding baby Leo in his arms, and a new dawn stretching endlessly across the horizon. The fairy tale was over. The real world had begun. And Avery Cross owned every single acre of it.
