Chapter 33 - A Visit to the Dungeon
With Marcus locked away awaiting trial, the sprawling, corrupt empire that Ethan’s family had built was officially and entirely eradicated from the face of the earth. A strange, undeniable compulsion settled over me—a profound need for closure. Without telling anyone, I drove alone to the desolate, maximum-security federal facility where Ethan was serving his sentence. I did not bring Liam. This final exorcism was a deeply personal burden I had to carry entirely on my own shoulders.
Sitting in the bleak, heavily sterilized visitation booth, separated by an impenetrable wall of thick, reinforced bulletproof glass, I waited. When Ethan finally emerged from the heavy steel doors, the sight was jarring. He looked as though he had aged twenty years. He was severely emaciated, his posture defeated, completely stripped of the terrifying, magnetic aura of power he once wielded like a weapon.
As he sat down and lifted his eyes to meet mine, a brief, familiar spark of virulent hatred flared in his gaze. But beneath the anger, completely consuming it, was a vast, inescapable ocean of absolute terror.
