Chapter 5
Z
Dr. Harrison slowly stood up from his leather chair, adjusting his lab coat with trembling fingers. His eyes flicked nervously toward the locked door, then to the internal desk phone near his right hand.
"Daniel," Harrison stammered, attempting to muster a patronizing, professional tone. "I... I heard about the tragic events at your estate on the news this morning. It’s an absolute horror. If you're here looking for comfort or medical records regarding Sarah's... unfortunate mental decline—"
Before he could finish the sentence, I moved.
I crossed the room in a fraction of a second, grabbed Harrison by the throat, and slammed him hard against the floor-to-ceiling glass window behind his desk. The espresso cup rattled against the saucer; paper documents scattered across the floor.
"Don't you dare speak her name," I growled, my grip tightening on his windpipe just enough to cut off his breath. "We ran the toxicology report, Arthur. Thallium. Pure, industrial-grade Thallium laced into her prenatal vitamins."
Harrison’s eyes went wide with sheer terror. He clawed at my wrists, his face turning a deep, suffocating shade of red. "I... I don't... know what... you're talking about!" he choked out.
"Lie to me again, and I won't wait for the police," I hissed, leaning in so close he could see his own frantic reflection in my pupils. "My firm breached your private server an hour ago. We found the wire transfers from Diane's off-book charity account straight into your offshore shell company in Nevis. Five hundred thousand dollars over six months. Is that what my wife's life was worth to you? Half a million dollars?"
I released his throat, letting him slump down onto his knees on the plush carpet, gasping frantically for air, coughing violently.
"It... it wasn't supposed to kill her!" Harrison sobbed, clutching his neck, his refined high-society demeanor completely shattered. "Diane... Diane swore to me it was just a mild neurotoxin! She said she just needed Sarah to look unstable for the custody hearing! She said Sarah was trying to steal the Sterling fortune!"
"You're a doctor!" I shouted, kicking his leather chair so hard it crashed into the wall, shattering a framed medical diploma. "You swore an oath! She was nursing my child! My son was ingesting that poison every single day!"
"I didn't know about the baby nursing!" Harrison wept, pressing his hands together in a frantic prayer for mercy. "I told Diane to make sure Sarah switched to formula after the birth! I swear to God, Daniel! I didn't want the child hurt!"
"You didn't care!" I yelled, pulling out my phone and slamming it onto the desk. On the screen was a digital warrant signed by the State Attorney General, authorizing the immediate seizure of Harrison's medical facility, patient files, and personal assets. "The police are outside right now, Arthur. You're losing your license, your clinic, your freedom, and your life. You're going to prison for conspiracy to commit murder."
Harrison covered his face with his bloodless hands, weeping uncontrollably as heavy knocking echoed against the locked library door.
"Dr. Harrison! Connecticut State Police! Open the door!" a voice shouted from the hallway.
I unlocked the door and stepped back as four state troopers swarmed into the room, tackling the weeping doctor to the floor and slamming him into handcuffs.
As they dragged Harrison past me, I looked the man dead in the eye. "Enjoy the cell, Arthur. My legal team will ensure you get the absolute maximum sentence possible."
Leaving the clinic behind, I took the SUV straight to the Hartford Correctional Center—a grim, concrete fortress rising out of the snow-covered industrial district.
Ten minutes later, I sat behind a thick pane of bulletproof glass in the high-security visitor room. The heavy steel door on the opposite side clicked open, and two female guards led my mother into the room.
Diane looked unrecognizable. The emerald silk dresses, pearl necklaces, and perfectly coiffed blonde hair were gone. She was dressed in a oversized, orange prison jumpsuit. Her hair was greasy and unwashed, her face pale, sunken, and lined with deep marks of rage and exhaustion.
She sat down heavily on the metal stool, slamming the plastic telephone receiver against her ear as she glared at me through the glass.
I slowly picked up my receiver.
"Are you happy now, Daniel?" Diane spat into the receiver, her voice raspy, filled with pure venom. "You put your own mother in a maximum-security prison! You humiliated our family name across every national news network! Is this your grand revenge?"
"You poisoned Sarah, Diane," I said, my voice dead, flat, and chillingly quiet.
Diane flinched, a flicker of panic darting across her cold eyes before her arrogant mask snapped back into place. "I did what was necessary to protect this family from a gold-digging nobody! She didn't deserve you! She didn't deserve our name! She was weak, Daniel! A peasant from upstate New York who thought she could sit at the Sterling table!"
"She is worth ten of you," I replied calmly. "And Noah is alive, despite everything you and Chloe tried to do."
At the mention of Chloe, Diane’s face hardened further. "Chloe is a fool. She broke under police questioning in twenty minutes. She blamed me for everything!"
"Because you are responsible for everything," I said. "Harrison confessed. Julian is in custody in Singapore. The entire network you built to murder my wife and steal my son's trust fund has completely collapsed."
Diane let out a harsh, bitter laugh that echoed unnaturally through the small visitor booth. "You think you've won because you put us in cages? Look at yourself, Daniel! You're just like me now. Cold. Merciless. Destroying your own blood to protect what's yours. You have my DNA. You can't escape it."
I looked at the woman who had given birth to me—a woman who had traded her soul for wealth and status, who viewed her own children and grandchildren as chess pieces to be manipulated or discarded.
"No, Diane," I said softly, leaning closer to the glass. "I am nothing like you. Because when I build a family, I protect it with love, loyalty, and truth. You built your life on lies, cruelty, and greed. And look where it got you. You're going to die in this place, alone, forgotten, and hated."
Diane’s lips trembled. For the first time, I saw genuine, cold fear deep within her eyes. The realization that she would never touch her wealth again, never attend another high-society gala, never hold power over another living human being was finally crushing her spirit.
"Daniel... please," she whispered, her voice suddenly breaking into a pathetic plea. "Don't leave me in here. I'm your mother. Talk to the prosecutor. Tell them it was a family misunderstanding. I'll give up the trust! I'll give Sarah everything! Just don't let me rot in here!"
I didn't answer. I slowly set the telephone receiver back onto its hook.
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Diane frantically banged her fists against the bulletproof glass, her mouth moving in silent, desperate screams as the guards grabbed her arms and dragged her back toward the heavy steel door.
I stood up, adjusted my suit coat, and walked out into the cold, clean air of freedom.
