Chapter 26 - The Final Reckoning
The discovery of Jocelyn's hidden ledger wasn't handed over to the police immediately. Ethan chose a different path.
Two days later, a black town car pulled up outside the sun-drenched, sterile retirement community in Boca Raton where Jocelyn Cole had been living out her quiet, isolated exile.
Jocelyn sat in a high-backed leather chair in the facility’s private parlor, reading a magazine, when the heavy oak doors opened.
She didn't look up, assuming it was a nurse bringing her afternoon medication.
"Set it on the table," Jocelyn snapped without raising her eyes.
"The nurse isn't here, Mother."
Jocelyn froze. The magazine slipped from her fingers, fluttering down onto the polished tile floor.
She looked up slowly.
Ethan stood before her, wearing a dark wool overcoat, his face carved from absolute ice. Behind him stood two private security guards and a federal marshal holding a fresh set of federal indictments for mail fraud, wire fraud, and witness tampering.
Jocelyn’s breath hitched, her face turning chalk-white. "Ethan... what is this?"
"It's the final chapter," Ethan said quietly, tossing the water-damaged leather ledger onto her lap.
Jocelyn stared down at the book, her hands trembling uncontrollably as she realized her entire web of lies had finally unraveled down to the last thread.
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"You can't do this to your own mother," she whispered, her voice cracking with sudden, desperate panic. "I gave you everything!"
"You gave me a cage," Ethan replied, turning his back on her as the marshals stepped forward. "And now, you're going to live in one."
