Falling for My Ex’s Mafia Dad — Episode 71
Victoria’s files contained a contingency labeled *Custodial Silence*. Grant planned to place Kent in a privately managed medical wing, provoke an apparent attack, and record his death as complications from restraint. Ivan’s undercover reports supplied the psychological profile used to design it.
Fay sent the file to Mara and the inspector general before fear could tempt her into secrecy. Copies went to three journalists under timed release, ensuring that Kent’s death would expose rather than protect the operation.
The prison moved Kent into administrative isolation while officials investigated. Isolation protected him from planted inmates but also removed witnesses. Fay demanded continuous independent medical monitoring through a court order.
Victoria identified the contractor running the medical wing as an Alden shell company. Lorenzo had purchased influence over the facility years earlier, preparing a weapon long before knowing which rival would occupy the cell.
Daniel wanted to extract Kent illegally. Fay refused. A rescue would turn lawful detention into permanent flight and confirm every accusation Grant manufactured. They would force the institution to protect the prisoner it held.
Ivan volunteered to testify about *Custodial Silence*. His signature appeared on the planning memo because Grant presented it as a hypothetical anti-corruption exercise. He admitted reading the steps without questioning who might become the target.
The admission angered Fay more than a lie would have. Systems of abuse survived because intelligent people treated cruelty as theory until someone they cared about occupied the diagram.
Ivan accepted the rebuke. He prepared a sworn statement identifying Grant’s codes, the contractors, and the officers trained for the staged emergency. The statement exposed his own complicity and eliminated any remaining federal protection.
Mara filed it before Kent’s evidence hearing. Prosecutors agreed to move him into a public facility under judicial supervision, but insisted the transfer route remain sealed.
Fay distrusted secrecy justified as safety. She asked the judge to appoint an observer inside the vehicle and stream location data to defense counsel. The request was granted over federal objections.
During transfer, the vehicle diverted from the approved route. The observer activated an emergency beacon before guards confiscated her phone. Daniel traced the signal toward the private medical wing named in Victoria’s file.
State police intercepted the transport at the entrance. Two federal officers carried forged medical orders signed by a doctor who had died the previous year. The assassination plan had begun exactly as documented.
Kent reached the public detention center alive. News of the interception forced prosecutors to suspend everyone connected to Grant’s unit and reopen the bail question.
Fay received her first in-person visit behind reinforced glass. Kent noticed her exhaustion and asked how long she had been sleeping badly. She asked whether prison had somehow improved his talent for avoiding the subject of himself.
He described the attempted transfer without heroics. He had recognized one guard from the van attack at the estate but remained silent until the independent observer signaled for help. Trusting someone else’s plan had saved him.
Fay told him Victoria lived. Kent closed his eyes, relief and shame crossing his face. Her survival meant some old crimes could finally be understood, but it also created a witness to choices he preferred buried.
He asked whether Fay was safe around her mother. She answered that Victoria had endured captivity and deserved treatment as a person, not an evidence container. Kent apologized for reducing concern to utility.
The visit ended with their hands aligned against opposite sides of the glass. Fay promised she would not free him by erasing his genuine crimes. Kent said he would not accept freedom purchased that way.
Outside, nausea struck Fay so violently she barely reached the restroom. She blamed exhaustion until Janeen quietly asked when she had last had a period.
Fay counted the weeks, stared at her reflection, and realized the hypothetical pregnancy in Grant’s file might no longer be hypothetical.