Chapter 11 - THE SHADOWS OF FEDERAL PRISON
Deep within the high-security confines of the Federal Correctional Institution in West Virginia, Margaret Prescott sat in a stark, windowless segregation unit. Her manicured nails were long gone, replaced by the chipped, raw edges of a woman forced to confront her own irrelevance.
For decades, Margaret had pulled the strings of Charlotte’s elite, believing her wealth was a shield granted by birthright. Now, clad in standard orange denim, she stared at a steel door that locked from the outside.
A prison guard banged heavily on her cell bars. "Prescott! Visitor. Legal counsel replacement."
Margaret stood up slowly, her knees stiff, clutching her institutional paperwork. She expected a new public defender assigned to pick through the wreckage of her dismantled defense. Instead, when she walked into the sterile, glass-partitioned visitation booth, the face on the other side wasn't a lawyer.
It was Victor Cole—a disgraced former corporate fixer who had once handled the Prescott family’s dirtiest back-alley deals before fleeing the country years ago.
Margaret grabbed the heavy audio receiver with trembling hands. "Victor? How... how are you here? They said you were in South America!"
Victor’s face on the other side of the glass was cold, devoid of the sycophantic warmth he used to display. "I was, Margaret. Until your federal indictment blew up every offshore account I had linked to your name. You left a paper trail a mile wide, and the DOJ seized everything, including my retirement funds."
"You have to help me!" Margaret hissed, pressing her palms against the glass. "General Hart is destroying everything! My sons are locked in maximum security, our assets are gone, and that woman is parading around in a general's star!"
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Victor chuckled bitterly. "General Hart isn't just playing politics, Margaret. She’s executing a systematic neutralization protocol. And you brought it on yourselves the second you laid a hand on her daughter. You wanted to play gods in Charlotte. Well, welcome to hell."
Before Margaret could scream back, Victor slammed his receiver onto the cradle and walked out of the room, leaving her alone in the dark.
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