Novels by Mercy Liv

Leo was sitting on the edge of his bunk when Marcus walked into the cell with a worried look on his face.Marcus shut the cell door behind him and lowered his voice, “You’ve got a problem.”Leo looked up calmly.“In this place, that’s not surprising.”Marcus shook his head,“No, this one is different. It’s Officer Briggs.”Leo frowned slightly, “The tall one with the scar on his chin?”Marcus nodded. “That’s the one.”Leo leaned back against the wall. “What about him?”Marcus crossed his arms.“He’s been watching you. Not the normal kind of watching either. The kind where someone is waiting for the right moment to make your life miserable.”Leo thought for a moment, “That means someone told him to.”Marcus sighed, “You’re thinking of Luca again.”Leo shrugged, “My uncle likes to remove problems quietly.”Marcus rubbed his face, “Well, Officer Briggs is definitely trying something. I saw him roughing up an inmate earlier just because the guy looked at him wrong.”“Good,” Leo’s expression

Leo was sitting on the lower bunk when Marcus returned from the prison library that afternoon.Marcus tossed a thin book onto the small metal table between them and stretched his back.“You ever notice how prison days feel slow but somehow the weeks disappear?” he asked.Leo looked up from where he had been quietly sharpening a piece of pencil against the edge of the table.“That’s because most people stop thinking about tomorrow,” Leo replied. “When people stop planning, time stops meaning anything.”Marcus sat down and stared at him, “You think too much.”Leo smirked faintly, “That’s how I stayed alive outside.”Marcus leaned back against the wall, “Well, out there you had money, guards, and a big family name. In here you’ve got a mattress and a toilet.”Leo opened his mouth to reply, but at that moment a guard’s voice echoed through the hallway.“Mail call!”Several inmates stepped toward their cell doors. Marcus looked surprised, “You getting letters already?”Leo frowned, “I don

Leo woke up before the morning bell.For a few seconds he just stared at the cracked ceiling above his bunk while the quiet sounds of the prison slowly filled the air. Somewhere down the hallway someone was coughing. Another inmate was muttering in his sleep. Metal clanged in the distance as guards began unlocking other cell blocks.Marcus shifted on the lower bunk and looked up, “You’re awake already?”Leo rubbed his eyes. “Couldn’t sleep much.”Marcus chuckled quietly. “That happens your first weeks here. Your brain is still trying to understand that this place is real.”Leo climbed down from the bunk and stretched his shoulders.“It’s real,” he said calmly. “I accepted that already.”Marcus watched him carefully, “You’re adjusting faster than most people.”“You don’t survive in my world by being slow,” Leo walked to the bars and looked out at the hallway.Marcus smiled slightly. “Your world is gone, Leo.”Leo didn’t respond immediately, after a moment he said quietly, “Then I’ll bu

The sound of boots on concrete echoed through the cold, dimly lit prison hallways. Leo leaned against the bars of his cell, staring at the mess of prisoners who were scattered throughout the yard. He had been here for a few days now, just enough time to start observing, to start understanding the game he would need to play in order to survive.Everything inside the prison had its own rules, its own hierarchy. And right now, Leo was at the bottom of it.The guards, dressed in dark blue uniforms, patrolled the yards and hallways with an air of disinterest, as if they were used to the noise, the violence, the chaos. They didn’t care about the inmates unless they caused trouble. And that, Leo quickly learned, was the first rule. Trouble meant attention. Attention meant punishment.But Leo wasn’t interested in attracting attention. Not yet. He was watching. He was learning.“Hey, new guy!” someone shouted from across the yard. Leo turned his head slowly.A tall man with tattoos crawling up

Leo didn’t realize how heavy chains could feel until the prison transport van began to move.The metal cuffs around his wrists were tight, and the thick chain connecting them clinked every time the vehicle hit a bump on the road. Across from him sat three other prisoners, all silent, all watching him in a way that made the air inside the van feel uncomfortable.One of them finally spoke.“So you’re the rich boy.”Leo slowly raised his eyes.The man speaking had a shaved head and a crooked nose that looked like it had been broken more than once.“Depends on who’s asking,” Leo leaned back slightly.The man smirked.“I saw you on the news. Mafia prince who killed his mommy,” The other prisoners chuckled.Leo didn’t react.Another man sitting beside the shaved-head prisoner leaned forward and studied Leo more carefully.“You don’t look like a killer.”Leo shrugged lightly, “Looks can be wrong.”“Yeah, they can. But prison doesn’t care who you are outside,” The shaved-head man laughed.Leo

The courtroom was already full when Luca Deluca slowly walked toward the witness stand, and the quiet murmurs of reporters and spectators faded the moment people realized who he was.Cameras flashed from the back of the room as journalists leaned forward eagerly, knowing that the testimony of the powerful DeLuca family patriarch would likely decide the fate of the trial.Leo sat at the defense table with his hands resting on the polished wood, the cold metal cuffs around his wrists reminding him that he was no longer the respected heir of a powerful family but merely a defendant accused of murdering his own mother.He watched his uncle approach the stand with calm, measured steps.The man didn’t look nervous.He didn’t hesitate.And most painfully of all, he didn’t even glance at Leo.The bailiff raised a Bible toward him and spoke in a firm voice. “Place your hand on the Bible.”Luca did so without hesitation.“Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the trut