Chapter 14 - Chloe’s Desperation and Ultimate Betrayal
In the medium-security wing across the complex, Chloe was experiencing her own terrifying reality check. Stripped of her makeup, her designer clothes, and her endless supply of cash, she had quickly realized that her mother's hollow threats and arrogant bluster couldn't protect her from the brutal social hierarchy of the inmate population.
Desperate and terrified, Chloe had managed to bribe a corrupt guard to let her use an illicit contraband burner phone to make one last, frantic call.
The phone on my desk at the penthouse rang late that evening. I looked at the unknown caller ID, then glanced at Julian, who gave me a reassuring nod and motioned for me to put it on speaker.
I pressed accept. "Hello?"
"Sarah! Sarah, please! You have to help me!" Chloe’s voice shrieked through the speaker, broken by desperate, hysterical sobbing. "I can't survive in here! The girls in this block—they're threatening me, they took my commissary, and Mom has completely lost her mind! She's screaming at the walls all day!"
I listened in silence, feeling no satisfaction, only a profound, cold pity for someone so utterly consumed by her own vanity.
"Chloe, when I was recovering from major internal surgery in that filthy house, bleeding on the floor, you sat on the sofa eating pizza and told me I was faking it for attention," I said, my voice eerily calm. "When your mother threw a heavy iron skillet at my head to fracture my skull, you screamed at me for making a mess."
"I was stupid! I was just following Mom!" Chloe sobbed hysterically, begging for mercy. "Please, Sarah! You're wealthy now, you have everything! Just pay off the warden, hire a top lawyer, get me out of here! I'll do anything! I'll beg on my knees!"
May you like
"You're right where you belong, Chloe," I answered firmly. "Accountability isn't a punishment; it's a mirror. Take a good long look at yourself."
I tapped the screen, ending the call permanently, and blocked the number. I walked over to the balcony doors, stepping out into the cool night air where the glittering city lights stretched out endlessly before me. The last remaining shadow of my past had officially vanished into the dark.
