Chapter 11 - The Prison Cell Confession
Six months after the fateful night at Vance Manor, the heavy iron doors of the Cook County Maximum Security Correctional Center echoed with a metallic clang. Arthur sat behind the reinforced glass partition of the visiting booth, dressed in a sharp charcoal suit that exuded commanding authority.
On the other side of the glass, Evelyn sat wearing a bright orange prison jumpsuit, her once-luxurious blonde hair chopped short and unkempt. The vanity that had once defined her existence had vanished, leaving behind a hollow, bitter shell of a woman.
“Did you come to gloat, Arthur?” she rasped into the telephone receiver, her voice gravelly and stripped of its former charm. “Did you come to see the great Evelyn Vance rotting in a cage before they transfer me to the federal supermax?”
Arthur picked up his receiver, his expression completely unreadable, exhibiting the calm power of a man who had reclaimed his soul. “I came to give you one final update on the estate you tried so desperately to steal.”
Evelyn gripped the plastic receiver tightly, her yellowed teeth grinding together in silent rage. “You think you won? You’re still living in a house haunted by Nora’s ghost.”
“Vance Manor has been demolished,” Arthur said with absolute serenity. “We leveled the foundation and donated the entire fifty-acre estate to the Chicago Children’s Memorial Hospital to build a pediatric trauma center named after Nora.”
Evelyn gasped, the cruelty of the irony striking her like a physical blow across the face. The very ground she had spilled blood to possess was now dedicated to healing the children she sought to destroy.
“And what about Dominic?” she whispered, her eyes burning with desperate malice. “Did he take the plea deal?”
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“Dominic received two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole,” Arthur replied coldly. “He testified against every single offshore banker and corrupt official on your payroll in exchange for avoiding the death penalty.”
Arthur slowly set the receiver back on its cradle, ignoring Evelyn’s frantic pounding against the thick glass as the guards dragged her away. He stood up, adjusted his coat, and walked out into the crisp spring air without looking back for a single second.
