Chapter 11 - The Message from Cell Block 4
The autumn air outside the Cook County Department of Corrections cut like glass. I sat on one side of a scuffed acrylic partition, staring at the woman who had spent thirty years controlling every breath I took. Evelyn wore an orange jumpsuit, her silver hair unstyled, yet her back remained unbending.
"You look tired, Ryan," she said, her voice static-filtered through the intercom.
"Noah is breathing without a ventilator," I replied, my hands flat against the cold metal counter. "The charges against Vance were upgraded to attempted murder. You're facing twenty years, Mother."
Evelyn smiled—a thin, dry stretch of skin. "You think you won because you put me in a cage? You poor, naive boy. Do you really believe William spent twenty years in a psychiatric institution as a helpless prisoner?"
A cold sensation settled in my stomach. "I saw the medical records. I saw the transfer orders."
"You saw what William wanted you to see," she whispered, leaning closer to the glass. "I didn't lock him away to steal his fortune, Ryan. I locked him away because he was using our family's foundation to conduct illegal genetic trials on infants across Eastern Europe. When I found out, he threatened to eliminate you. I made a deal with the federal prosecutors back then to keep him hidden under a psychiatric hold. But he didn't stay locked up. He spent the last ten years running Aegis Protocol from the shadows."
My phone vibrated in my coat. A text message from our Suburban home security system flashed across the screen: Front Perimeter Sensor Tripped - Door 1 Disarmed.
"Check your father's coat, Ryan," Evelyn's voice rasped through the speaker. "The one he wore to the hospital. Look at the emblem on his cane."
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I stood up so fast my chair crashed backward against the concrete floor. "What did he do?"
"He didn't come back for you," Evelyn said softly as the guard stepped up to lead her away. "He came back for Noah's blood."
