Chapter 14
The stark interrogation room at the federal detention center smelled heavily of industrial bleach and stale sweat. Richard Keller sat slumped pitifully at the metal table, wearing a neon orange jumpsuit that clashed violently with his aristocratic, graying features. He looked up slowly as Jocelyn confidently walked in, his eyes utterly hollow. "Did you come here just to gloat?" Richard rasped, his weakened voice completely devoid of its usual booming patriarchal authority. "You won, Jocelyn. You systematically took the house, the holding company, and my entire legacy. Are you finally satisfied?" "I didn't come for a meaningless apology, Richard," Jocelyn said coldly, sitting directly across from him. She deliberately slid a printed, high-resolution photograph of Julian Vance across the scratched metal table. "I came for a name." Richard’s tired, bloodshot eyes drifted downward to the photo. Instantly, all remaining color completely drained from his already pale face. His ragged breathing hitched audibly, and he pushed the photo back toward her with violently trembling fingers. "Where did you get this?" Richard whispered, genuine, unadulterated terror creeping into his frail voice. "He personally met me at the gates of the estate," Jocelyn said smoothly. "He told me that David didn't actually die in Afghanistan. He told me you were just a pathetic pawn who blindly paid for the paperwork to send my husband directly into their hands." Richard closed his eyes, a single pathetic tear leaking from the corner. "I truly didn't know, Jocelyn. I swear to God, I didn't know who they really were! A man approached me at the country club. He explicitly offered to solve my severe liquidity crisis and remove David from the picture simultaneously. He said David would just be quietly detained in a black site!" "You sold your son-in-law to a private militia," Jocelyn hissed, her voice vibrating with immense, suppressed violence. "I was desperately protecting the empire!" Richard sobbed, pathetically echoing the exact excuse he had used hours earlier. "I need immunity!" "I need the encryption keys to Katherine’s offshore Cayman accounts," Jocelyn demanded. "The ones my forensic auditors uncovered. Give them to me now."
