Chapter 15 - The Glass Partition
The visitor room at Lew Sterrett smelled of burnt coffee and institutional floor wax.
Ryan was brought in wearing an orange county jumpsuit, his wrists chained to a heavy leather transport belt around his waist. The smug confidence he carried at the shower forty-eight hours ago had been completely stripped away, replaced by bloodshot, frantic exhaustion.
When he saw me sitting on the other side of the scratch-resistant acrylic, he lunged forward until the chain snapped taut.
"Nora!" he cried, grabbing the heavy plastic receiver with shaking hands. "You have to tell them! Mom’s lawyer won't take my calls! They're saying I'm looking at ten to twenty years for child endangerment!"
I picked up the handset, my expression entirely neutral.
"Your mother didn't post your bail, Ryan," I said, every word hitting with surgical precision. "Her brother posted hers. She left on an executive jet an hour ago."
Ryan shook his head frantically, tears leaking down his stubbled cheeks. "No... no, she said she was getting the cash together. She promised me—"
"Judith Caldwell isn't your mother," I cut in.
The silence between us through the static-filled line was absolute.
Ryan stared at me, his mouth parting slightly. "What are you talking about?"
"She bought you in nineteen-eighty-five from an unwed ward of the state to maintain control of the nineteen-seventy-four Caldwell Trust," I said. "The woman who gave birth to you was Miriam Vance. My mother."
Ryan dropped the handset against his chest, his eyes widening into hollow, uncomprehending circles.
May you like
"No," he whispered, the sound vibrating faintly through the plastic. "That's impossible. We... we have a daughter."
"And Judith poisoned her to keep her hands on your real mother's inheritance," I said.
