Chapter 13 - THE CELLI visited Rikers Island exactly once. I didn't want to go. I didn't need closure. But I knew if I didn't look Margaret in the eye one last time, she would haunt my nightmares forever.

She sat behind the thick plexiglass partition in an orange jumpsuit. Without her makeup, her expensive highlights, and her designer clothes, she looked incredibly frail. She looked like an ordinary, bitter old woman.

She picked up the heavy black phone on her side of the glass.

I picked up mine.

“Did you come to gloat?” Margaret rasped. Her voice was raspy, ruined by the dry prison air.

“No,” I said. “I came to tell you a story.”

She glared at me, crossing her arms.

“Do you know what the saddest part of all this is, Margaret? You spent thirty years terrified that Arthur would find out about Daniel. You poisoned your own husband to protect a fortune you thought belonged to you.”

Margaret looked away. “Arthur was a fool. He was going to give everything away to charity.”

“Arthur knew, Margaret. He knew before Daniel was even born. He stayed with you because he pitied you. And he left you the money because he thought you would eventually learn how to love Daniel as a son, rather than a pawn.”

Margaret’s head snapped back to me. “You’re lying.”

“I’m not. The money was always yours. Until you put a chain around Sophie.” I leaned closer to the glass. “The moment you did that, you triggered the morality clause Arthur buried deep in his will. You lost everything, not because of your past sins, but because you couldn't stop being cruel in the present.”

Her hands began to shake. The realization that she had destroyed her own empire over petty malice was finally sinking in.

“Where is Daniel?” she whispered, a tear finally breaking loose and tracing a line through the dirt on her cheek.

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“I don't know,” I said truthfully. “And I don't care.”

I hung up the phone. I didn't wait to see if she had anything else to say. I turned my back to the glass and walked out of the prison, stepping into the bright, blinding sunlight of New York.