Chapter 7 - THE PRISONER'S GAMBITDeep within the maximum-security wing of the Washington Women's Correctional Facility, Evelyn Cole sat on her narrow cot. Her pristine hair was now dull and graying, her manicured nails bitten to the bone. Across from her in the adjoining visiting cage, Natalie wept hysterically.
"Mother, we have to do something!" Natalie choked out through the mesh wire. "The other inmates... they know who we are! They treat us like trash! Ethan won't even answer our legal appeals!"
"Shut up, Natalie!" Evelyn snapped, her eyes hollow and filled with madness. "Ethan hasn't won yet. He thinks he destroyed us, but he forgot about your uncle."
Natalie froze. "Uncle Marcus? But he was banished from the family twenty years ago! Father locked him out of the trust!"
"Marcus controls the underworld in South America," Evelyn whispered, pressing her face against the wire. "I sent a message to him through my court-appointed lawyer yesterday. I offered him the location of your father’s true secret vault in Zurich in exchange for Ethan’s destruction—and Claire’s head."
Before Natalie could answer, the heavy steel door of the visiting room burst open. Four federal guards rushed in, followed immediately by Ethan, accompanied by Viktor.
Evelyn jumped up, a sickening smirk touching her lips. "Ethan! Have you finally come to beg for your mother's forgiveness?"
Ethan didn't smile. He stepped up to the glass, pulling a sealed document from his coat. "Your lawyer was intercepted at the airport an hour ago, Evelyn. Marcus’s mercenaries in Bogota were dismantled by my team before their planes even left the tarmac."
Evelyn’s face turned ghastly pale. "What... what are you talking about?!"
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"Uncle Marcus is currently in federal custody," Ethan said, his voice terrifyingly calm. "And for attempting to order a hit on my wife from inside a federal prison, your sentence has just been upgraded to life in solitary confinement without possibility of parole. You will never see the sun again, Evelyn. Nor will you ever hear my voice again."
Evelyn began screaming, throwing her body against the bulletproof glass as the guards tackled her to the floor. "ETHAN! NO! I AM YOUR MOTHER! ETHAN!"
