CHAPTER 4 — Locker 17 Held the Secret They Killed to Bury
Emily dropped to her knees beside Brutus as blood soaked through his prison shirt.
"Stay with me!"
Brutus forced a weak smile.
"You still cry exactly like you did when you were six."
Emily froze.
A memory flashed through her mind.
A little boy wiping tears from her face after she scraped her knee.
"I'll always protect you, Emmy."
She had buried that memory years ago.
Now she knew it had been real.
Another gunshot echoed across the yard.
BANG!
Concrete exploded beside them.
The guards weren't trying to stop the riot anymore.
They were aiming at Emily.
One inmate suddenly shouted from the crowd.
"They're trying to kill the girl!"
Everything changed.
For years, the prisoners had feared Brutus.
But they respected one thing even more—
A man who protected his family.
Without warning, dozens of inmates rushed forward, forming a human wall between Emily and the armed guards.
"What are you doing?" one guard screamed.
An elderly prisoner stepped forward.
"We've done terrible things."
"But we don't murder sisters."
The standoff had begun.
While chaos spread across the yard, Brutus gripped Emily's arm.
"Listen carefully."
"You only have one chance."
Emily leaned closer.
"Locker 17 doesn't contain money."
"It contains evidence."
Her heart skipped.
"What evidence?"
Brutus coughed blood.
"The original security tapes."
"The fire..."
"It was never an accident."
Emily stared at him.
"Who started it?"
Brutus slowly turned toward the administration building.
"The man standing in the top window."
Emily looked up.
The prison warden.
But standing beside him...
Was a woman.
Elegant.
Expensively dressed.
Wearing dark sunglasses despite the cloudy sky.
The moment Emily saw her face...
Her entire body went numb.
"No..."
It couldn't be.
The woman was Judge Rebecca Lawson.
The same judge who had sentenced Emily to fifteen years in prison.
The same judge who claimed there was "overwhelming evidence" against her.
Rebecca smiled.
Then she calmly spoke into a small radio.
"Terminate both witnesses."
Emily's blood ran cold.
This had never been about prison.
This had never been about justice.
Someone had planned this for years.
Brutus grabbed Emily's wrist one last time.
"There isn't much time."
"The locker also contains..."
His voice suddenly stopped.
Emily looked down.
A tranquilizer dart was sticking out of Brutus's neck.
He collapsed instantly.
Emily screamed.
Several guards were now charging toward her.
Behind them, Judge Lawson slowly removed her sunglasses.
For the first time, Emily noticed something impossible.
The judge wasn't wearing a wedding ring.
Instead...
She wore a ring engraved with the exact same symbol as the rusted key...
And the prison warden's ring.
A secret organization.
One symbol.
One conspiracy.
And somehow...
May you like
It had controlled both the courtroom and the prison all along.
To Be Continued...
