Chapter 13 - The Broken Pawn
The visitor room at the federal detention center smelled of industrial disinfectant and stale coffee.
I sat behind the thick reinforced glass, watching the heavy metal door slide open. Kenneth walked in, escorted by two armed guards.
He was unrecognizable from the polished, arrogant executive who had tried to flee on a private jet months ago. His prison jumpsuit hung loose on his gaunt frame, his jaw was covered in patchy stubble, and a dark purple bruise circled his left eye.
When he saw me sitting on the other side of the glass, he stopped dead in his tracks. A mixture of shame, bitterness, and sheer panic flickered across his hollow face.
He slowly sat down on the metal stool and picked up the red telephone receiver. I mirrored his movement and brought the phone to my ear.
"Come to gloat, Sabrina?" Kenneth rasped, his voice cracked and thin. "Come to see how the mighty have fallen?"
"I don't have time to gloat, Kenneth," I replied evenly. "Your father is being released on parole."
Kenneth’s hand began to shake violently. The plastic receiver tapped against the glass partition. The color drained from his face until he looked like a ghost.
"No," Kenneth whispered, his voice trembling with genuine terror. "No, that’s impossible. His sentence had five years left."
"Apex Horizon bought his way out," I said, watching his reaction closely. "And yesterday, Arthur sent a sniper photograph of Justin to my front door. He promised to finish what you failed to do."
A ragged, humorless laugh escaped Kenneth’s throat. He buried his face in his free hand, his shoulders shaking.
"You think I wanted to marry you, Sabrina?" Kenneth suddenly choked out, looking up with wild, bloodshot eyes. "From the day I graduated college, my father owned me. He held promissory notes over my mother’s estate. He threatened to ruin my siblings if I didn't get inside Rollins Global. He made me report every single board meeting, every balance sheet, every dollar your father earned."
"And the fertility clinic?" I asked, my voice dropping to a dangerous, low hiss. "Did Arthur tell you to destroy my chance at having children too?"
Kenneth flinched, looking away in shame. "My father said... he said if you had an heir, your father would tie the estate into an untouchable trust that couldn't be liquidated. He told me that if you got pregnant, he would cut off my offshore access completely."
Rage surged through me, hot and suffocating, but I forced myself to remain icy and composed.
"Your father doesn't care about you, Kenneth. You were just a hired hand to him. And now that you're in here, do you think he's going to protect you? You're a liability."
Kenneth looked down at his bruised hands. "Someone tried to shank me in the showers two days ago," he whispered. "The guards broke it up, but the inmate told me it was a message from outside. It was my father, wasn't it?"
"Help me destroy Apex Horizon, Kenneth," I leaned in close to the glass. "Give me the access codes and the bank routing files Arthur used to set up the shadow debt. Give me the ammunition to put him back behind bars, and I will have my lawyers petition to transfer you to a minimum-security facility where he can't touch you."
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Kenneth stared at me, tears streaming down his hollow cheeks. "His lawyer... a man named Julian Sterling in Chicago. Sterling keeps the encrypted server in a private safety deposit vault at the First Continental Bank of Denver. The account number is my mother's birthday: 04-19-62. If you crack that vault, you'll find every single board member Arthur bribed."
I hung up the phone without another word and walked out, leaving the man who destroyed my marriage behind in his cage.
