Chapter 10 - The Last Breath of the Past
Six months later.
The Federal Correctional Institution in Otisville was quiet during visiting hours.
Julian Vance sat behind a thick glass partition in an orange jumpsuit. His face was pale, his eyes sunken, stripped of the wealth and power he had spent his life chasing. He was serving three consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.
The heavy steel door on the visitor’s side opened, and Lucas Moretti walked in.
Lucas looked completely different. His hair was slightly longer, his face relaxed, and the dark, icy aura that once surrounded him was entirely gone. He sat down calmly on the stool across from Julian and picked up the telephone receiver.
Julian slowly picked up his receiver, a bitter, hollow smile touching his lips.
"Came to gloat, Lucas?" Julian asked raspy. "Come to see the big boss in a cage?"
"No," Lucas said quietly. "I came to tell you that it's over."
"It's never over," Julian spat softly into the phone. "You gave away everything. The family name is gone. The empire is gone. You're nobody now, Lucas. Just a regular guy living on a farm."
Lucas looked at his former friend with a look of pure pity.
"That empire was a prison, Julian," Lucas said evenly. "I was dead inside that house for three years. You thought you were taking everything from me, but you ended up freeing me."
Julian gripped the phone tighter, his knuckles turning white. "And the kid? The maid's girl?"
"She's going to school," Lucas said, a small, proud smile appearing on his face. "She wants to be a doctor when she grows up. She wants to help people breathe."
Julian stared at Lucas through the glass, realization slowly washing over him. Lucas hadn't just survived the poison, the betrayal, and the war—he had rebuilt his life on a foundation of grace and purpose.
"I hated you," Julian admitted softly, his voice finally dropping the arrogance. "Because no matter what I did, people respected you. Isabella loved you. The men followed you. I had to steal your life just to feel like I mattered."
"Respect isn't taken, Julian," Lucas said softly. "It's given. And love isn't something you can buy with blood money."
Lucas placed the receiver back on the cradle. He stood up, adjusted his coat, and turned toward the exit.
"Goodbye, Julian," Lucas said through the glass, though Julian could no longer hear him.
Lucas walked out of the prison doors into the bright autumn sunshine.
The air was crisp and cool, smelling of fallen leaves and fresh rain. Lucas stopped on the wide stone steps, closed his eyes, and took a deep, full, clean breath of air into his lungs.
His phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out and saw a photo message from Sarah.
It was a picture of Lily standing in front of a school building, wearing a bright yellow backpack, holding her stuffed rabbit, smiling broadly at the camera.
Underneath the picture was a text from Sarah: First day of first grade! She insisted on wearing the medal you gave her.
May you like
Lucas smiled—a real, bright smile that filled his chest with warmth.
He put the phone back in his pocket, walked down the steps toward his truck, and drove home into the sunlight.
