CHAPTER 1 â The Woman Everyone Wanted to Break
The steel gates slammed shut with a deafening clang.
Every conversation inside Blackridge Women's Prison stopped.
The inmates turned toward the entrance.
Another newcomer.
Another victim.
Twenty-eight-year-old Emily Carter walked slowly between two correctional officers, carrying nothing but a worn duffel bag and a thin file stamped HIGH-RISK TRANSFER.
She didn't lower her head.
She didn't cry.
She simply looked around the prison yard as if she were memorizing every face.
That was enough to offend someone.
Across the yard sat Scarlett "The Queen" Malone, the woman who had ruled Blackridge for nearly eight years.
Nearly six feet tall.
Covered in faded tattoos.
A broken nose that had healed crooked after dozens of prison fights.
Everyone feared Scarlett.
Even some guards preferred avoiding her.
She smiled slowly.
"Fresh meat."
The inmates laughed.
Emily ignored them.
She walked toward an empty bench and quietly opened a paperback novel.
Scarlett hated being ignored.
She stood up.
The yard became silent.
Every prisoner knew exactly what was about to happen.
Scarlett grabbed Emily's book and ripped it clean in half.
Pages floated through the air like snow.
"Rule number one," Scarlett sneered.
"You ask permission before breathing in my prison."
Emily slowly picked up one torn page.
Folded it carefully.
Placed it inside her pocket.
Then she looked Scarlett directly in the eyes.
"I don't need permission from anyone."
The yard exploded with gasps.
Nobody...
Nobody had ever spoken to Scarlett like that.
Scarlett laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because she had already decided how Emily was going to suffer.
"You'll regret saying that."
Emily simply answered,
"We'll see."
That night...
Scarlett's gang stole Emily's blanket.
They poured cold water over her bed.
They hid her dinner.
They waited for tears.
None came.
Instead...
Emily quietly exercised every night after lights out.
Push-ups.
Pull-ups.
Shadow boxing.
Always alone.
Always silent.
One elderly inmate whispered to another,
"She's not training to survive..."
"She's training for something."
Three days later...
A rumor spread through every prison block.
Scarlett had challenged Emily.
Tomorrow afternoon.
The abandoned laundry room.
No guards.
No rules.
One woman walks out.
The other leaves on a stretcher.
More than two hundred inmates secretly gathered to watch.
No one believed the newcomer would last thirty seconds.
But Emily smiled for the first time.
May you like
As if...
This was exactly what she had been waiting for.
