Chapter 5 - THE CELL BLOCK REVELATION
Federal Correctional Facility, Sector 4.
The visiting room was cold, sterile, and smelled faintly of industrial disinfectant and stale coffee. Thick plexiglass divided the secure booths, cutting through the heavy silence of the room.
Julian Vance sat on the other side of the glass, wearing a standard-issue orange jumpsuit that hung loosely on his frame. His hair was unwashed, dark circles bruised the skin beneath his eyes, and his hands trembled uncontrollably against the steel table.
When the heavy guard door clicked open and I walked into the booth, Julian’s head snapped up.
For a second, a flash of desperate hope crossed his ruined face. He stood up, pressing his palms against the glass as if he could somehow reach through it.
"Clara! Thank God!" Julian choked out, his voice cracking desperately. "You came! You’re the only one who can fix this! Tell the prosecutors it was all a mistake, tell them I was just following my father’s orders! They'll listen to you, you're one of them—please, Clara, get me out of here!"
I sat down calmly in the molded plastic chair, picking up the heavy black telephone receiver. Slowly, deliberately, I brought it to my ear.
Julian eagerly picked up his receiver on the other side, pressing it tightly against his ear. "Clara? Did you hear me? We can leave the country! We can go to Switzerland, there are still hidden accounts, I know where the keys are—"
"Julian, stop talking," I said softly. My voice was steady, calm, and completely devoid of warmth.
Julian froze. The frantic desperation in his eyes slowly morphed into a chilling confusion. "What... what do you mean? Clara, we're husband and wife—"
"We were husband and wife," I corrected him smoothly. "And as of this morning, my attorneys filed the final paperwork for an absolute annulment based on fraud, coercion, and bigamy."
Julian recoiled as if he had been physically struck. "Bigamy?! What the hell are you talking about? I was never married to anyone else!"
"Weren't you?" I reached into my leather folio, pulling out a crisp, certified legal document, and pressed it flat against the glass for him to read.
Julian’s eyes scanned the page. As the words registered, every vestige of color vanished from his face.
It was a marriage certificate. Dated three weeks before our own wedding.
The groom was Julian Vance.
The bride was Chloe Miller.
"You... you knew?" Julian gasped, his breath fogging up the glass. "How could you possibly know about that? We kept it completely secret—just a private ceremony in the Bahamas in case she got pregnant first!"
"Julian, did you really think an elite federal investigator with top-tier cybersecurity clearance wouldn't notice a wire transfer of five hundred thousand dollars from a corporate shell account to a Bahamas wedding planner?" I shook my head, letting out a soft, pitying sigh. "You and Chloe weren't just having an affair. You were legally married behind my back while siphoning Vance Group funds into a joint offshore account under a false corporate identity."
Julian slumped back into his metal chair, his hands sliding down the glass. The realization hit him with the force of a freight train.
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"That..." Julian whispered, his voice trembling uncontrollably. "That's why... that's why the federal charges include corporate embezzlement of subsidiary funds..."
"That's right," I replied, standing up and smoothing down my jacket. "Because of that secret marriage and the financial trail attached to it, Chloe isn't just your mistress—she’s your co-conspirator. Federal prosecutors are currently offering her twenty years if she testifies against you and your father. And knowing Chloe’s loyalty, she probably started singing opera five minutes ago."
