Chapter 13 - The Reckoning of Seraphina ThorneA week later, I visited the Danbury Federal Correctional Institution.
I hadn't planned on going, but Damian had arranged the private clearance when a formal request for an interview was submitted by Seraphina’s defense counsel.
I sat in a secure visitation room, separated by a pane of reinforced plexiglass.
The steel door opened, and Seraphina was escorted inside by a female guard.
She wore a plain khaki prison jumpsuit. Her styled blonde hair was pulled back into an unadorned ponytail, her diamond jewelry replaced by plastic wristbands. The haughty, untouchable heiress who had sneered at me in the penthouse had evaporated, leaving behind a hollow, bitter woman staring at twenty-five years behind bars.
She sat down, picking up the heavy telephone receiver with trembling hands.
I picked up the receiver on my side.
“Why did you come here?” Seraphina asked, her voice cracking with bitter fatigue. “To gloat? To show off the life you stole from me?”
I looked at her calmly, feeling neither hatred nor pity.
“I came here to tell you that Alyssa’s memorial foundation is funding sixty community bakeries and nursing clinics this year,” I said evenly. “The very money your family tried to steal is now feeding thousands of families who actually need it.”
Seraphina let out a harsh, dry sob, pressing her forehead against the glass.
“I had everything, Maya,” she wept, tears cutting through the grime on her face. “I had the name, the penthouse, the alliance, the wealth... and you took it all with a single dessert plate.”
“You took it from yourself, Seraphina,” I replied gently. “You thought people like me were disposable. You thought a maid had no eyes, no ears, and no courage. But in the end, it wasn't power that decided your fate. It was truth.”
May you like
She closed her eyes, unable to look at me any longer.
I set the receiver down, rose from my chair, and walked out of the room, leaving the shadows of the Thorne dynasty behind forever.
