Chapter 8 - SHADOWS IN THE DUST
One year after Daniel’s conviction.
The maximum-security federal penitentiary sat in the middle of a barren, desert plain, surrounded by double chain-link fences topped with razor wire.
Inside the stark visitor room, Daniel Vale sat behind a thick sheet of bulletproof glass.
His hair was chopped short and graying at the temples. He wore a faded orange jumpsuit, his once-manicured hands now rough and calloused from prison manual labor. He held a plastic telephone receiver to his ear, staring through the glass at his mother, Evelyn, who sat on the other side.
Evelyn looked broken, wearing faded clothes from a thrift store, her hands trembling as she held her receiver.
"Did you talk to the appeal lawyer, Mom?" Daniel demanded, his voice thin, desperate, and filled with frantic energy. "Did he find a loophole in the trust charter?!"
Evelyn shook her head slowly, tears welling in her tired, hollow eyes. "There are no loopholes, Daniel... No lawyer will take the case without a fifty-thousand-dollar retainer. I don't have fifty dollars, Daniel. I live on seven hundred dollars a month from social assistance."
"You have to sell something!" Daniel screamed, slamming his fist against the glass, causing the guard at the door to place his hand on his holster threateningly. "Ask my old friends! Ask the board members!"
"They don't take my calls, Daniel!" Evelyn sobbed into the receiver. "Nobody takes our calls! When people hear the name 'Vale,' they think of Elena! She is the chairwoman of the entire regional commerce board now! She is untouchable!"
Daniel leaned his forehead against the cold glass, tears of bitter, pathetic frustration leaking from his eyes. "It's not fair... It's not fair! I was the vision! I was the face of the company! She was just a quiet little accountant!"
"She was never just an accountant, Daniel," Evelyn whispered, the harsh truth finally sinking into her broken mind. "She was Charles Vale's granddaughter. We just didn't realize it until she decided to destroy us."
The guard tapped on the glass. "Visiting time is over. Step away from the booth."
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Evelyn hung up her phone and walked away slowly, her head bowed in defeat.
Daniel watched her leave, knowing that he had seventeen more years sitting in this cold concrete box—seventeen years to think about every lie he had told, every dollar he had stolen, and the night he turned off his phone to cut a cake while his true fortune slipped through his fingers forever.
