Chapter 12 - The Devil's Reunion
Miles away, inside the bleak, gray walls of the county correctional facility, Heather sat in the visitor's booth. She looked ragged in her orange jumpsuit, entirely stripped of the designer makeup and expensive clothes she had bought with my grandmother’s stolen money.
The heavy steel door on the other side of the thick plexiglass opened, and Victor Vance walked into the room.
He was a massive, imposing figure. Years of hard labor in a federal penitentiary had turned him into a wall of muscle and scars. His cold, dead eyes locked onto Heather, and for the first time in her life, my arrogant, cruel sister looked genuinely terrified.
Victor picked up the plastic telephone receiver. Heather shakily did the same.
"You look exactly like your mother," Victor said, his voice lacking any paternal warmth. "I hear she is sitting in a cell just like this one, across town."
Heather swallowed hard, desperate to play the victim. "You are my father," she whispered, tears springing to her eyes. "Mom told me about you when I was a teenager. She told me you would protect me if I ever needed it."
Victor chuckled, a dark, humorless sound. "I spent twenty years in a cage. I don't owe anyone protection. But I do not like it when people mess with my blood. I read your police report, Heather. Armed robbery. Extortion. You got sloppy."
"It was Sarah!" Heather hissed, her face pressing against the glass. "Sarah and her husband set us up. They stole the house, they took all the cash, and they framed me and Mom to keep the millions for themselves. She has all of it, Victor. She took what was rightfully mine."
Heather was weaving a brilliant, venomous lie, exactly like our mother had taught her. She knew Victor did not care about family loyalty, but he cared deeply about money. He had just been released from prison with nothing but the clothes on his back. The promise of millions in stolen real estate cash was the perfect bait.
Victor stared at her for a long, calculating moment. He saw right through the tears, but the greed in his eyes was unmistakable.
May you like
"Where does your sweet sister live now?" Victor asked quietly.
Heather smiled, a wicked, triumphant grin spreading across her face. She leaned into the receiver and gave him the exact address of our old house, completely unaware that we had already sold it and vanished.
