Chapter 18 - HANDCUFFS AND VELVET
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The visiting room of the Manhattan Federal Detention Center was cold, smelling of industrial bleach and old floor wax.
I sat behind the thick reinforced glass partition, wearing a comfortable cashmere sweater, looking calm and rested. Liam was safe at home in Brooklyn under Marcus’s personal guard.
The heavy steel door on the opposite side opened, and a guard escorted Dominic inside.
He looked unspooling. His tailored suit had been replaced by a bright orange jumpsuit. His dark hair was messy, stubble covered his jaw, and heavy dark circles bruised the skin beneath his eyes. The terrifying billionaire was gone; only a bitter, defeated prisoner remained.
He sat down heavily across from me and picked up the black plastic intercom phone.
I picked up mine.
“You look pleased with yourself, Clare,” Dominic sneered into the receiver, his voice raspy and bitter.
“I’m satisfied, Dominic,” I answered calmly. “Liam is healthy. The doctors confirmed his heart is fine.”
Dominic’s jaw twitched. “He’s my son. He belongs in the Callahan legacy, not in some working-class Brooklyn slum with you.”
“He is a Callahan,” I agreed softly. “And he will inherit Callahan Maritime. But he will never know the man who treated his mother like a disposable toy.”
Dominic slammed his handcuffed fists against the reinforced glass. “I built that company! You stole it from me using that traitor Vanessa!”
“You gave it to me the moment you assumed I was too stupid to understand my own mother’s language,” I said, leaning closer to the glass. “You thought I was weak because I loved you. You forgot that love makes a mother dangerous.”
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Dominic stared at me, his eyes wide with a mixture of hatred and lingering shock. He had spent his entire life dominating everyone around him, but he couldn't find a single crack in the woman sitting before him.
“I’m signing the transfer papers,” I said, sliding a single sheet of paper against the glass. “Sign the plea deal, Dominic. Spend your ten years in federal prison knowing that every time Callahan Maritime makes a profit, it goes into your son’s trust—managed entirely by me.”
