Chapter 954

"You think you have a choice? The higher-ups cleared this visit, so you're going. You have a set time limit, and when it's up, you bring your ass straight back here. Stop stalling before I write you up for insubordination!"

Violet sneered inwardly. She was serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. She was destined to rot in this concrete hellhole until the day she died. There was nothing left to fear.

This was the textbook definition of despair. Every single day was a carbon copy of the last, an endless cycle of grueling labor stretching into oblivion. The greatest tragedy wasn't the loss of freedom-it was existing as a walking corpse.

With shackles biting into her ankles, the heavy steel door clanked open. The guard hauled her forward, the grinding drag of her chains echoing ominously down the cavernous corridor. She shuffled step by agonizing step toward the visitation booth.

A thick iron grate separated her from the outside world. A broad-shouldered man sat on the other side. The harsh backlight obscured his face, but for a split second, her pulse spiked. His silhouette bore a striking resemblance to McNeil.

But as she drew closer, the illusion shattered. She had never seen this man before in her life. She racked her aging brain-she was nearing fifty now, how could she possibly know this twenty-something kid? She didn't care who he belonged to; she was sick of interacting with the living.

If she had one final wish before she died, it would be to see McNeil one last time, just to ask if he had ever loved her, even for a single day.

Violet took the seat across from Connor, her expression stony as she studied his features. There was something intensely familiar about his eyes, a ghost of someone she once knew, but she couldn't place it.

After a long, suffocating silence, she finally spoke. "Who are you? I don't know you. What do you want? Whatever you're here to ask, save your breath. I'm not telling you anything."

Connor scrutinized the emaciated

woman in front of him. Just as Marcus had said, this was the mistress McNeil had kept hidden away She looked entirely

unremarkable, the kind of woman who would blend seamlessly into any crowd.

She possessed neither striking beauty nor a captivating figure. Was McNeil blind? But it wasn't his place to dissect the sins of the previous generation. He leaned forward and answered her.

"An old friend."

Violet let out a harsh, raspy laugh her first in decades. An old friend? Did someone like her even have old friends left in this world?

"Who the hell are you? Who sent you? Stop playing games. Don't blame me when I give you absolutely nothing. You're obviously here with an agenda."

A dark smirk tugged at the corner of Connor's mouth. She had a sliver of cunning left in her, but not much. him, Violet was just a stepping. stone He only needed her to fill in the blanks of his own fractured past and unravel the pieces that stilf didn't make sense.

Why would Victoria's romantic rival murder his parents? It was a twisted puzzle And until he could accept the grim reality that his parents had died protecting him, he couldn't shed a single tear for them.

"Does the name Marcus Green ring a bell?"

At the sound of the name, the blood drained from Violet's face. She stared at Connor, the puzzle pieces violently clicking into place. Her gaze sharpened into a venomous glare.