Chapter 14 - Begging in the Ashes: Stripped of Every Cent
Six months later.
The high-profile federal trial had concluded with swift, crushing guilty verdicts for everyone involved. Harrison Blake had been sentenced to thirty-eight years at ADX Florence Federal Penitentiary, stripped of every title, penny, and shred of social standing.
Before his final transfer to the maximum-security facility in Colorado, Harrison was granted one final supervised civil deposition in a federal courthouse conference room to sign the irrevocable divorce decree and child custody surrender forms.
The heavy steel door opened.
Simone walked into the room.
She looked breathtaking. She was dressed in a tailored ivory pantsuit, her dark hair falling in elegant waves over her shoulders, carrying herself with the supreme poise of an undisputed corporate titan. In her arms, wrapped in a soft pink cashmere blanket, was six-month-old Victoria—a beautiful, bright-eyed baby girl with her mother’s glowing smile and peaceful spirit.
Harrison looked up from the table, his wrists and ankles bound in heavy iron transport chains.
He looked forty years older. His dark hair was streaked with gray, his cheeks hollow, his hands trembling violently.
“Simone...” Harrison whispered, his voice cracking with profound sorrow and regret. “Look at you... you’re so beautiful.”
Simone took a seat across the wide table, keeping baby Victoria gently nestled in her arms, looking at Harrison with neither anger nor hatred—only total, absolute indifference.
“Sign the final divorce decree, Harrison,” Simone said, her voice smooth and steady. “The marshals are waiting to transport you to the airfield.”
Harrison looked at the signature line on the document, then looked up at the baby in Simone’s arms. Tears streamed freely down his hollow cheeks.
“Can I... can I just touch her hand?” Harrison begged, lifting his chained hands slightly. “Just once, Simone. Please. She has my eyes. Let me hold her finger for one second before I go away forever. I’m begging you on my knees.”
Simone looked down at her daughter, then looked straight into Harrison’s eyes.
“When you were plotting to steal her from me in Natasha’s penthouse, you called her an incubator's child. You said she was just leverage to take control of an empire.”
Simone pulled the baby closer to her chest, rising from her chair with unyielding grace.
“You don't get to touch her, Harrison. You don't get to be her father. Her name is Victoria Blake, and she will grow up knowing that her mother built an empire of honesty and love, while her biological father died in the shadows of his own greed.”
Harrison began to sob uncontrollably, his tears soaking the legal paperwork on the desk. With trembling, broken fingers, he picked up the pen and signed his name on the final line, surrendering every legal right, every property, and every claim to the Blake legacy forever.
“It is finished,” Diane Foster said, picking up the signed documents.
May you like
Simone turned toward the heavy double doors without looking back once.
Behind her, Harrison collapsed face-first onto the table, his agonizing wails echoing down the concrete corridors as the marshals stepped forward to drag him away to his permanent prison cell.
