Chapter 6 - THE PRISON VISITTwo weeks later, the maximum-security holding facility in Queens was cold, gray, and smelled perpetually of bleach and despair.
When the heavy steel door buzzed open, Victoria Sterling sat behind the reinforced glass partition.
Her designer silver gown was gone, replaced by a coarse orange jumpsuit. Her hair was unwashed, and her face was lined with bitter, unyielding fury. The untouchable philanthropist of New York high society had been completely erased.
When she saw me walk into the visitation booth, she leaped to her feet, slamming her cuffed hands against the thick glass with a dull thud.
"You!" she hissed, her voice muffled by the acoustic barrier. She grabbed the wall phone, and a second later, my handset buzzed.
I picked it up slowly, holding her venomous gaze through the glass.
"You think this is over?" Victoria snarled into her receiver, spittle flying against the partition. "My lawyers are filing appeals! I'll get out of here, and I'll take everything you love!"
"You don't have any lawyers left, Victoria," I replied, my voice dangerously calm. "Your personal accounts were seized to pay restitution to the charities you defrauded. You are facing forty years for financial corruption and murder conspiracy."
Victoria’s face twisted into a mask of pure terror as the reality of her life sentence finally sank into her bones.
"Please," she whispered, her voice cracking into a pathetic, high-pitched plea. "I'm family... let me see Noah—"
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"You never were family," I cut her off smoothly. "You were just a parasite."
I hung up the phone, ignoring her hysterical, muffled screams, and turned away from the glass.
