Chapter 13 - Behind Glass Walls
The Federal Correction Facility at Danbury smelled of industrial bleach, damp concrete, and the lingering rot of despair. Daniel walked through the security checkpoints without acknowledging the prison guards who whispered among themselves at the sight of the city’s most prominent billionaire walking the halls of the maximum-security wing.
The visiting room for high-profile detainees was a sterile white box divided by three-inch-thick ballistic glass. Daniel sat on the hard metal stool, his posture rigid, his hands resting flat upon the counter.
Presently, the heavy steel door on the opposite side groaned open. Evelyn Vance shuffle-stepped into the room, her ankles chained, wearing an ill-fitting orange jumpsuit that hung loosely on her shrunken frame. Without her diamond collars, tailored Parisian suits, and immaculate silver coiffure, she looked diminished, hollowed out by the sudden collapse of her empire. But when she lifted her chin and stared at Daniel, her eyes still flickered with the cold, venomous arrogance that had ruled three generations of the Vance bloodline.
She picked up the telephone receiver with trembling, age-spotted hands. Daniel took his receiver, his voice ice-cold.
"Who is in the clinic in Zurich, Evelyn?"
Evelyn’s pale lips curved into a ghastly, mocking smile. "I see Victoria finally crawled out of her jungle. I always knew that girl lacked discipline. She was supposed to stay buried in South America."
"You told me Julianna burned in that car," Daniel said, every syllable laced with a fury so deep it threatened to tear through his composure. "You made me sign the death certificate. You handed me a box of dust and watched me weep over an empty grave for six years while you shipped my son off to strangers. What did you do to her?"
Evelyn leaned forward, pressing her forehead against the glass until her breath fogged the surface. "I saved this family from your sentimental idiocy, Daniel! Look at what she was—a penniless painter from an unstable family, with no connections, no lineage, no power to offer Vance Enterprises. When you brought her home, pregnant with a bastard child, you threatened to destroy a legacy built by three generations of titans!"
"Ethan is my son!" Daniel roared into the receiver, slamming his palm against the steel counter. The sound echoed through the sterile room, causing two armed guards by the door to rest their hands on their holsters. "He is your flesh and blood! And Julianna loved me—she gave you nothing but respect!"
"She was weak," Evelyn spat, her voice crackling with venom through the speaker. "The accident was real enough. She lost control on the ice when she tried to run away with Ethan after I told her she would never be welcome in our society. But she didn't die. The car didn't explode; it hit an oak trunk. When my paramedics pulled her out, her brain was swollen, her memories shattered, her body broken. She was an empty vessel, Daniel."
"So you hid her," Daniel whispered, tears of unadulterated hatred burning in his eyes. "You paid a private asylum to keep her locked away in a foreign country so you could mold Ethan into an heir without her interference."
"I did what a patriarch should have done!" Evelyn sneered, though a faint shudder rattled her frail shoulders. "I gave her the finest care money could buy! She had clean sheets, medication, and specialists. But I could not allow her to turn my grandson into a bohemian softling. I needed Ethan pure. I needed him to bear the Vance name without her peasant blood tainting his mind. If you hadn't brought that girl Clara into the wedding... if that sniveling brat hadn't broken past the security guards and screamed down the aisle... we would be sitting in the boardroom together today, ruling this city."
Daniel stared at the woman who had birthed him, feeling nothing left within his heart—no filial pity, no shared history, nothing but revulsion.
"You aren't a mother," Daniel said softly, the calm finality in his voice cutting deeper than any scream. "You aren't even human. You will stay in this concrete cage until the day you die, Evelyn. The courts have seized every hidden trust, every Swiss account, every deed. And I am leaving for Zurich tonight to bring my wife home."
Evelyn’s eyes widened, a sudden flicker of genuine panic cracking her hardened facade. She slammed both handcuffed wrists against the glass.
"You can't bring her back!" Evelyn shrieked into the phone, her voice spiraling out of control. "You don't know what she remembers, Daniel! You don't know who else was in the car that night! If you wake her up, you will destroy Vance Enterprises yourself! Daniel! Don't you dare walk away from me—*Daniel!*"
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Daniel slammed the receiver onto the metal cradle. He stood up, adjusted his coat, and walked toward the exit without looking back once, leaving his mother screaming hysterically against the soundproof partition as the guards moved in to pin her down.
***
