Chapter 6 - The Spider’s Last Thread
The federal detention center was a bleak fortress of gray concrete and reinforced glass. I had insisted on seeing Derek one final time before the grand jury issued the formal indictments. Julian had opposed the idea, fearing the psychological toll it would take on me, but he ultimately arranged the meeting through Marcus, standing guard right outside the heavy steel door of the visitation room.
Derek sat behind the bulletproof glass, wearing an orange jumpsuit that stripped him of all his tailored elegance. He looked thinner, his hair messy, but his eyes still held that same cold, experimental light I had seen through the freezer window.
"You look well, Caroline," he said through the intercom phone, his voice smooth, completely devoid of remorse. "Green suits you. I see Julian Vance has been spending a lot of money to keep you pristine."
"You killed my father, Derek," I said, my voice completely flat, refusing to give him the satisfaction of seeing me cry. "We found the journal. We found the medical records showing the digitalis levels in his system."
Derek let out a soft, dry laugh that sent a chill down my spine. "Your father was a relic who was standing in the way of progress. The company was stagnating under his 'ethical' management. I did what was necessary to scale the business."
"And what about our children?" I asked, pressing my hand against the glass, the memory of the sub-zero floor flashing through my mind. "You locked them in a freezer to suffocate in the dark. How was that necessary?"
Derek leaned closer to the glass, his expression turning into a mask of pure, unadulterated venom. "They were liabilities, Caroline. The moment you became pregnant, your father's old trust clauses locked up the primary capital until the children turned eighteen. I couldn't access the core funds while they were alive. You were supposed to die before the birth, leaving the estate entirely to me as the surviving spouse. You ruined a perfectly calculated algorithm by surviving."
Hearing him describe my babies as an "algorithm" broke the last lingering thread of my old connection to him. I stood up, slamming the phone receiver back onto its hook.
"The algorithm failed, Derek," I said through the glass, knowing he could hear me through the reinforced mesh. "My children are alive. Your assets are frozen. And the only thing you will inherit from the Sterling family is a lifetime of isolation."
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As I walked out of the visitation room, Julian was waiting for me in the corridor. He didn't say a word; he simply pulled me into a deep, protective embrace, his long coat wrapping around me like a shield against the darkness of the prison.
"Let's go home, Caroline," he whispered into my hair. "The feds have everything they need."
