Chapter 19 - The Final Trap|
The visitor’s room at the federal penitentiary was freezing and reeked of industrial bleach. Julian sat behind the thick bulletproof glass, wearing an oversized orange jumpsuit. He looked like he had aged ten years in a single week.
I picked up the black receiver. “Talk.”
“A deal first, Clara,” he smiled a sickening, yellow-toothed grin. “Tell your mother to get her lawyers to drop half the federal charges. Then I’ll give you the name.”
“You are in no position to negotiate, Julian. You either talk, or you rot in here until you die.”
He swallowed hard, his eyes darting around the room in absolute paranoia. “The person... they are more powerful than you can imagine. They sit right on the Sterling Board of Directors. They found me five years ago, paid me millions to approach you, marry you, and make sure you never amounted to anything.”
I froze. There was a traitor inside my own family’s boardroom?
“What is the name?” I demanded, my voice sharp.
Julian opened his mouth to speak. But suddenly, his eyes rolled to the back of his head. He violently grabbed his own throat, foaming at the mouth, and collapsed hard onto the concrete floor.
“Guards! Medical emergency!” I screamed, slamming my fists against the glass.
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The guards rushed in, but it was too late. Julian lay completely motionless, dead from an untraceable poison slipped into his last meal. The mastermind had silenced him before he could utter the final name.
I stood frozen in the visitor's booth, a creeping chill wrapping around my spine. The game wasn't over. It was just entering a much bloodier stage.
