Chapter 12 - Gideon Sterling’s Final Ultimatum
Six weeks later.
The Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn was cold, gray, and smelled of industrial floor cleaner and stale despair.
Rowan Miller sat in an interrogation room on an orange plastic chair, wearing a standard-issue dark green inmate jumpsuit. His once-immaculate hair was roughly buzzed, he had lost fifteen pounds, and dark, hollow circles dominated his gaunt face.
The steel door clicked open.
Gideon Sterling walked in alone. He wore an elegant black overcoat, carrying a single leather folder. He didn't sit down across from Rowan; he remained standing, towering over the prisoner with absolute dominance.
“Mr. Sterling...” Rowan croaked, his voice raspy from weeks of isolation. “Did... did Phoebe come with you?”
“Phoebe is at our estate in Greenwich,” Gideon replied, his voice level and cold. “She is currently supervising the international audit expansion for Sterling Capital. And my grandson just laughed for the first time this morning.”
A sharp, agonizing pain flashed across Rowan’s hollow eyes. “I want to see him. Just once. Just a photograph...”
“You will never see a photograph of him, Rowan,” Gideon said. “You will never hear his voice. You will never know the man he becomes.”
Gideon placed the leather folder on the metal table and opened it. Inside were two sets of legal documents.
“The United States Attorney has compiled seventy-six counts of wire fraud, identity theft, tax evasion, and money laundering against you and your mother,” Gideon stated calmly. “Under federal sentencing guidelines, with your mother testifying against you to save herself, you are facing twenty-two to twenty-seven years at a federal penitentiary in Otisville.”
Rowan began to shake, tears dripping onto the metal table. “I’ll die in there... please, Mr. Sterling. I’m only thirty-one... I’ll die in prison...”
“You have one alternative,” Gideon said, pointing to the documents.
Rowan looked up desperately. “Anything. I’ll do anything.”
“Document A is a complete, irrevocable surrender of all parental claims, past, present, and future, including an absolute waiver of any right to challenge Leo’s adoption or estate inheritance under any jurisdiction on Earth,” Gideon explained. “Document B is a full confession of the financial crimes, confirming that you acted alone regarding the forgery of Phoebe’s name, clearing her credit completely.”
“And what do I get?” Rowan asked, his hands trembling over the pen Gideon placed on the table.
“You get Document C,” Gideon said, sliding a third sheet forward. “Sterling Capital’s legal team will submit a plea-bargain recommendation to the presiding federal judge. Your sentence will be reduced to forty-eight months in a minimum-security facility. When you are released at thirty-five, you will have no felony record under the Sterling name, but you will be barred for life from the financial securities industry.”
Rowan stared at the papers. “Forty-eight months... instead of twenty-five years.”
“Sign the papers, Rowan,” Gideon said softly. “Or I walk out that door, call the prosecutor, and ensure that every single day of those twenty-seven years is served in maximum security.”
Rowan didn’t hesitate for another second. He grabbed the pen with shaking fingers and signed his name on every single dotted line, completely surrendering his son, his pride, his marriage, and his former life with a few strokes of black ink.
When he finished, Gideon picked up the documents, inspected each signature with a practiced eye, and closed the leather folder.
“Thank you, Rowan,” Gideon said, turning toward the door.
“Mr. Sterling!” Rowan called out, desperation cracking his voice. “What... what about my mother? What is happening to Mom?”
Gideon stopped at the door, glancing back over his shoulder with a faint, chilling smirk.
May you like
“Your mother refused to sign a plea agreement,” Gideon replied. “She insisted she was royalty who couldn’t be touched. Her trial begins in three weeks. She’s looking at fifteen years in a women’s correctional facility in upstate New York.”
The heavy steel door slammed shut, leaving Rowan completely alone in the cold, silent room.
