Ch.69: Prison Visit

Blackgate Supermax wasn't a prison. It was a tomb for the living.

I walked through the checkpoints, my new Vane Foundation ID card opening every door. The guards didn't sneer at me this time. They saluted.

I reached the visitation block. High security. Glass thick enough to stop a tank round.

Mia was already there. She was wearing orange, her hair pulled back in a severe bun. She looked thinner. Sharper.

She didn't pick up the phone when I sat down. She just stared at me.

I picked up the receiver.

"Hello, Mia."

She slowly reached for the phone.

"You look expensive," she said, eyeing my tailored suit. "Vane money?"

"My money," I said. "I earned it."

"By destroying your family."

"By saving it," I corrected. "Or what was left of it."

"You didn't save anything," Mia spat. "You just replaced one tyrant with another. Sterling is gone, but Vane owns the city now. And you're his pet."

"I'm his partner," I said. "And we're changing things. The Foundation has already taken fifty cases. Innocent people who would have rotted in here because they couldn't afford a lawyer."

"How noble," Mia sneered. "Does it help you sleep at night? Knowing your brother is dead because you couldn't leave well enough alone?"

I leaned forward, my hand pressing against the cold glass.

"Liam didn't die because of me, Mia. He died because of you. Because you got greedy. Because you thought you could play a game you didn't understand."

"I understood the game perfectly!" she hissed. "It's eat or be eaten. I chose to eat."

"And now you're starving," I said.

I opened my briefcase. I pulled out a document.

"What is that?"

"A plea deal," I said. "From the new District Attorney."

Mia laughed. "I already have a deal. I gave them Sterling's accounts."

"That deal is void," I said. "Because I gave them something better."

I held the document up to the glass.

"I gave them the full unredacted logs from the Ghost Drive. The ones that show you didn't just facilitate the murder. You planned it."

Mia's face went white.

"Premeditated murder," I said. "Conspiracy. Rico charges. They're going for the death penalty, Mia."

She dropped the phone. She scrambled back from the glass, her eyes wide with terror.

"No," she mouthed. "No!"

She picked the phone up again. "You can't let them do this! I'm your sister!"

"You stopped being my sister the moment you signed Liam's death warrant."

"Harper, please! I'll do anything! I'll testify! I'll give you names!"

"We have the names," I said. "We have everything."

"Then why are you here?" she screamed. "To gloat?"

"To say goodbye."

I stood up.

"I'm not going to help you, Mia. I'm not going to save you. You made your choice. Now you have to live with it."

"You can't leave me here!" she shrieked, slamming her hand against the glass. "I'm all you have left!"

"No," I said, looking at the ring on my finger. The twisted steel. "I have a future."

I hung up the phone.

Mia was screaming now, silent behind the soundproof glass. She was pounding on the barrier, her face twisted into a mask of pure hatred.

I looked at her one last time. The sister I had loved. The stranger I hated.

I turned my back on her.

"Guard," I said. "I'm done."

I walked away, leaving her in the dark.