Scarlett’s POV
The letter lay in my lap like a stone, heavy with silence. Its words echoed inside me, a slow detonation of everything I thought I knew.
“Do you need a minute?” Miriam asked, her voice low, cautious.
I wanted to say yes. I wanted to curl into the lie and pretend Charles was exactly who he’d always claimed to be. Gentle. Kind. Mine.
But Cell 7A had already changed the rules.
“No,” I whispered. “Let’s finish this. Whatever this is.”
I rose shakily and turned my eyes back to the box. The cassettes. The bundle of photographs. And one final thing, tucked under a false bottom, a small, metal key with the number 49 scratched into it.
The air inside Cell 7A had shifted.
After everything we’d seen, Something about the room felt unfinished, like it was only pretending to be wh
