CHAPTER 2 — The Name That Broke the Monster
Nobody in the yard moved.
Brutus Kane’s fist stayed frozen inches from Emily’s face, but his eyes were no longer angry.
They were haunted.
Emily took one slow step closer.
“Black Ridge,” she whispered again. “You remember the fire. You remember the boy.”
Brutus’s jaw tightened.
“Shut up.”
The crowd began murmuring.
For years, Brutus had been a legend inside the prison. A monster. A man with no weakness.
But now, a woman half his size had stopped him with nothing but a name.
Emily looked at the guards watching from the fence.
Then she looked back at Brutus.
“My little brother died that night.”
Brutus’s breathing changed.
Heavy.
Unsteady.
Emily’s voice cracked, but she refused to cry.
“They said the fire was an accident. They said nobody survived. But I found the prison transfer record.”
Brutus stepped back.
The inmates gasped.
Emily reached into her shoe and pulled out a tiny folded paper.
The organizer’s face went white.
Because on that paper was a name.
Not Brutus Kane.
His real name.
Daniel Carter.
The crowd went silent.
Emily raised the paper.
“You’re not the man who killed my brother.”
Brutus stared at her, confused.
Emily’s eyes filled with pain.
“You are my brother.”
For the first time in twenty years, Brutus Kane dropped to his knees.
And behind the guards, the prison warden quietly turned away…
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Because he had known the truth all along.
To be continued...
