2026-02-09 05:15:24
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
CHAPTER 063: The Hospital Fire
The library was quiet, the only sound being the soft whistle of the wind against the glass. I leaned forward, my voice dropping to a rough whisper. "The hospital didn't smell like the prison," I told Melanie. "It smelled like bleach and death, but it was a cleaner kind of end. I lay there for hours, watching the red light of the smoke detector on the ceiling. I was waiting for the spark. Stephen had promised me that by two in the morning, the world would think I was gone. I just had to survive the heat." "Were you afraid?" Melanie asked. "I was hollow. Fear requires you to value your life, and at that moment, I didn't. I just wanted the name Thiago Henderson to stop existing. I heard the heavy click of the door. It was Stephen. He was dressed as a night porter, pushing a cart of linens. He didn't look at me as he walked to the utility closet in the corner of my room." "Is it time?" I whispered. Stephen paused, his hand on the closet handle. "The guard in the hall is out. I put en
CHAPTER 062: The Inheritance
I sat on the floor of the library, the heat from the dying fire finally starting to fade. My legs were stiff, but I didn't want to move. This was the hardest part to tell, the part where I lost the only father I had ever truly known and gained a weight that would sit on my chest for the rest of my life."By the fourth year, the dynamic had shifted completely," I said to Melanie. "I wasn't just a student anymore. I was his shadow. I was his right hand. In the yard, people didn't see a 'trash' son-in-law anymore. They saw the man who walked beside the king of Iron-Gate. Radcliffe had me managing portfolios on smuggled burner phones. I was making million-dollar trades while sitting on a bucket in the laundry room.""Did people know what you were doing?" Melanie asked."They knew I was dangerous," I replied. "Radcliffe taught me that information is a more effective weapon than a shank. We knew which guards were gambling away their kids' tuition. We knew which warden was having an affair.
CHAPTER 061: The Mentor
I shifted my weight on the library floor, my back leaning against the chair where Melanie sat. I could feel her warmth, a sharp contrast to the memory of the cold, damp stone of cell block C. I stared into the dying fire, and for a moment, I wasn't in a mansion. I was back in the dark, listening to the man who rebuilt me from the ruins."The first time I actually saw Radcliffe, I thought he was a ghost," I said, my voice quiet. "He was a thin man, his skin like parchment, sitting on his bunk with a posture that didn't belong in a cage. He looked like he was presiding over a boardroom, even in an orange jumpsuit. I was leaning against the bars of my cell, my lip still swollen from the morning’s encounter in the yard.""You finally spoke to him?" Melanie asked."I had to. The silence was louder than the noise in that place. I looked through the mesh at him. He was reading a book, turning the pages with slow, deliberate care.""Why are you helping me?" I asked him. My voice was a rasp I
CHAPTER 060: The Past 8
I shifted my position on the floor, my back aching from the memories. The warmth of the library felt like a lie compared to the bone-deep cold of the place I was describing. I looked at the fire, but all I could see was the gray concrete of Iron-Gate. "The transport van didn't have windows," I said. "It was just me and three other guys in a metal box that smelled like old sweat and bleach. I didn't say a word. I just watched the light leak through the cracks in the door until we hit the gravel of the prison yard. When those doors opened, the air tasted different. It was heavy. It tasted like rust and despair." Melanie leaned closer, her shadow stretching across the rug. "How did it start?" "With a walk," I said. "They lined us up. The guards didn't treat us like people. To them, we were just freight. I remember the lead guard, a guy named Miller. He had a neck as thick as a tree trunk and eyes that had seen too much misery to care about mine." I closed my eyes and I was back on th
CHAPTER 059: The Past 7
I sat on the floor of the library, the silence between Melanie and me stretching thin. The fire was nearly dead now, just a pile of glowing orange ribs in the grate. I stared at my hands, remembering how they had felt in heavy steel cuffs, the cold biting into my wrists while the world watched me fall. "The trial was a circus," I said. My voice sounded thin, like paper tearing. "But the sentencing was the final nail. They didn't just want me in prison, Mel. They wanted to strip away every last scrap of my dignity before they sent me to the hole. I was standing in that courtroom, wearing a cheap suit my public defender had found in a donation bin. I looked like a ghost of the man I used to be." Melanie leaned forward, her eyes soft with a pain I didn't want to see. "Did your father try to help?" "My father was already gone by then, his name dragged through the mud by the same people," I said. "I was alone. On the day of the sentencing, the courtroom was packed. All the socialites I
CHAPTER 058: The Past 6
The fire in the library was dying down, the glowing coals shifting with a soft hiss. I didn't want to look at Melanie, so I kept my focus on the empty space where the flames used to be. My voice felt like it was being dragged through gravel. "The night they did it was the coldest night of that year," I said. "I was in the farmhouse, trying to fix a hole in the floorboards. I was exhausted. My hands were stiff. Then, the kitchen door of the main house opened, and Bernadette walked across the lawn. She wasn't wearing her usual silk. She had a simple coat on. She looked worried. For a second, I thought the woman I loved had finally come back." I closed my eyes, the memory playing out like a film I couldn't stop. Bernadette stepped into the shack. She looked around at the damp walls and the single lightbulb with a look of pure disgust, but then she turned that gaze on me, and it softened into a lie. "Thiago," she whispered. "I'm so sorry. I didn't know it was this bad out here. My fat
You may also like
The Pinnacle of Life
Evergreen Qin1.7M viewsFrom Darkness to Light: Darwin's Rise
Magical Inspirations75.2K viewsRise Of The Disrespected Trillionaire Heir
Blaq81.5K viewsUnderrated Son-In-Law
Estherace107.5K viewsThe Prometheus Protocol
FLO129 viewsThe Masked Tycoon
A writer girl713 viewsBloodline Of The Black Throne
JM842 viewsExiled Son-In-Law, Supreme General
Joanora Elyse321 views