Chapter 13 - Behind the Glass
The women's correctional facility in Dwight, Illinois, was a sprawling concrete graveyard surrounded by double-coiled razor wire. Nathan sat in the private interrogation booth, his suit wrinkled, his tie undone, the manila folder resting flat between his hands.
When the heavy steel door clicked open, Vanessa Sterling walked in.
She was no longer the immaculate socialite who adorned the covers of *Chicago Business Monthly*. Her blonde hair was chopped short, jagged and dull. Her skin was sallow, framed by the harsh glare of institutional neon. Yet, the sharp, predator curve of her jawline remained intact. When she saw Nathan, her lips curled into a dry, mocking smile.
"Nathan," she said, pulling out the steel chair across from him, her handcuffs rattling against the welded table. "You look exhausted, darling. Is running a transparent company giving you gray hair?"
Nathan didn't blink. He slid the manila folder across the steel surface until it struck her cuffed wrists.
Vanessa’s smile didn't fade immediately, but her eyes dropped. When she saw the Gary, Indiana clinic seal, the muscles around her throat spasmed. A micro-expression of pure, unadulterated panic crossed her features before she smoothed it over with a brittle laugh.
"Old paperwork," she dismissed, leaning back. "You know how thorough my financial advisors were. We looked into surrogacy networks years ago."
"Don't lie to me!" Nathan slammed both fists on the table, the metallic boom echoing off the reinforced concrete walls. The guard at the door gripped his baton, but Nathan didn't care. He leaned forward until he was inches from her face, his eyes feral. "October 14th! You carried my son for nine months, Vanessa! You hid the appointments, you used corporate couriers to deliver prenatal meds under fake names, and when he was born... you strapped a piece of rubber to your stomach!"
Vanessa remained frozen, her breath shallow.
"Why, Vanessa?" Nathan's voice dropped to a razor-thin whisper that trembled with pure agony. "You tried to destroy Eli. You tried to send my twelve-year-old son to juvenile detention by pretending he pushed you down the stairs. But you weren't protecting an empire. Who did you give that baby to?"
Vanessa looked at him, and for the first time in all the years he had known her, the corporate mask didn't just crack—it shattered. A wild, hollow terror emerged in her eyes.
"You think I sold him for money?" she hissed, leaning in, her shackles clattering violently. "You blind, arrogant fool! If I had kept him in your house, they would have butchered him in his crib! Do you have any idea who your father really borrowed money from to build Mercer Manufacturing?"
Nathan’s heart stopped. "My father died an honest man."
May you like
"Your father died in debt to the Castiglione syndicate!" Vanessa spat, tears finally pooling in her rimmed eyes. "And their condition for letting you take the CEO chair was collateral. A bloodline collateral. I didn't fake the fall to ruin Eli, Nathan! I faked the fall so the mob would think the baby died before they could collect him!"
***
