Chapter 24
Chapter 24: The Prison Visit
The glass partition between them was thick, scratched, and smudged with fingerprints.
Trevor sat on the other side wearing an orange jumpsuit, his hands cuffed to a chain around his waist. His hair was shaved short, and his posture was slumped, the arrogant posture he once carried completely drained from his body.
He picked up the heavy plastic telephone receiver. Rebecca picked up hers.
"Why did you do it?" Trevor asked, his voice hollow through the earpiece. "You destroyed everything. Your father’s company is bankrupt. Malcolm is dying in a prison hospital. My family name is garbage."
"You destroyed it, Trevor," Rebecca said softly. "You just blamed me for the wreckage."
Trevor let out a dry, bitter laugh. "You think you won? You think you’re safe because you gave a speech on TV? You don't know who those people in Europe are, Rebecca. They don't care about court orders or press conferences. They’ll come for Emma. They’ll come for the new baby."
Rebecca leaned forward, her eyes narrowing with a fierce, cold intensity that made Trevor recoil slightly behind the glass.
"They won't come for my children, Trevor," she whispered. "Because I gave the federal prosecutors the master decryption key to the Aegis server network this morning. The trustees aren't thinking about me anymore. They’re busy hiring defense lawyers and hiding from Interpol."
Trevor stared at her, his mouth slightly open. For the first time, he realized that the quiet, compliant woman he had trapped in his house three years ago was entirely dead. In her place stood someone he could neither manipulate nor comprehend.
"You really don't love me at all anymore, do you?" Trevor asked, a pathetic, child-like tone creeping into his voice. "Not even a little bit?"
Rebecca looked at him for a long moment. She didn't feel hatred. She felt nothing at all—only the cold reality of a past that no longer defined her present.
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"I loved the man I thought you were," she said. "But he never existed. You were just a shadow your father cast."
She hung up the receiver, stood up, and walked out of the visitation room without looking back.
