Part 20
Six months later,
the spring sun had returned to the city,
filling the parks and avenues with vibrant green trees and beautiful,
blooming flowers.
Inside the state penitentiary,
Daniel sat at a metal table in the common area,
his face lined with new scars from a recent altercation with another inmate.
His hands were rough and calloused from the daily hard labor he was forced to perform in the prison laundry room.
A guard walked up to him,
throwing a crumpled copy of the daily financial newspaper onto the table before him.
"Here you go,
boy,"
the guard said with a dismissive snort.
"Thought you might want to see how your old company is doing."
Daniel picked up the paper with a trembling hand,
his eyes scanning the front page,
and his heart stopped as he read the headline.
"Whitmore Enterprises Finalizes Historic Merger with Vance International,
Creating a Ten-Billion-Dollar Global Empire."
Right beneath the text was a massive,
beautiful photograph of Clara and Julian Vance standing on the balcony of their new headquarters.
Clara looked radiant,
her smile genuine and full of happiness,
a stunning diamond ring glittering on her left hand.
She looked like a goddess of success,
a woman who had conquered every obstacle and claimed her ultimate victory.
Daniel let out a low,
pathetic groan,
the paper slipping from his fingers and fluttering onto the dirty floor.
He realized then that he had not just lost the company;
he had lost everything he had ever fought for,
while the woman he tried to destroy had achieved everything he ever dreamed of.
He was locked in a concrete cage for the next twenty years,
forgotten by the world,
surrounded by criminals,
and consumed by a bitter,
burning regret that would never leave him.
He closed his eyes,
but all he could see was Clara’s face at the airport terminal,
her voice echoing through his mind like a permanent curse:
"I am the storm you never saw coming."
And as the loud prison bell rang,
signaling the end of the recreation hour,
May you like
he stood up and walked back to his dark cell,
entirely broken and completely defeated.
