Chapter 22 - The Broken Prince
Kirkland Correctional Institution was a world away from the manicured lawns and private docks of Charleston. The air inside the maximum-security processing center smelled of industrial bleach, damp concrete, and despair.
I sat behind the visitor partition alongside our lead estate attorney, Jonathan Vance. Across from us sat Drew Halston.
He was unrecognizable from the man who had sneered at me at Boone Hall plantation. His prison uniform was faded and frayed at the cuffs. His fingernails were split and dirty from the facility's laundry detail, his posture was hunched, and a fresh purple bruise marred his left temple—a clear sign that the inmates in state prison cared nothing for his former social pedigree.
When he saw the blue estate folder in my hands, his bloodshot eyes widened in sheer, unadulterated terror.
"Maren..." Drew whispered, his voice trembling as he picked up the receiver. "What is that?"
I held up the certified 1998 patent title and the forensic handwriting analysis of my father’s forged quitclaim deed.
"You stole my father's docking royalties, Drew," I said, my voice dead calm, devoid of all pity. "Two weeks after he was buried. You told me he left debts. You made me feel like a burden, thanking you on my knees for paying his funeral expenses, while you were pocketing eight hundred thousand dollars a year from his surveyor patents."
Drew swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple trembling violently. He looked desperately at my attorney, then back at me, tears of panic spilling down his hollow cheeks.
"Maren, please... listen to me!" Drew begged, his breath fogging up the thick glass. "It was my dad! Richard made me do it! He said Thomas was just a dock worker who didn't understand the value of the title! He told me we needed the patent to secure the Crowley shipping contracts! I didn't want to do it, I swear to God!"
"You signed your own name as the notary, Drew," I said, pointing directly to the ink on the certified page. "You stamped it with your personal seal. You used my father's legacy to fund your private penthouses, your sports cars, and the diamond ring you gave Vanessa Crowley."
"I have nothing left, Maren!" Drew cried out, his voice cracking into a high-pitched wail that drew the sharp glare of the armed guard standing in the corner. "They took the firm! They took the cars! My father is in another facility and won't speak to me! I'm doing hard time in here! If they charge me with estate fraud and federal patent theft, the judge will run the sentences consecutively! I’ll be fifty before I ever walk out of these gates!"
"Then you should have thought about that before you stole from an orphan, Drew," I replied, feeling an immense, grounding clarity settle into my heart.
"Maren, please!" Drew sobbed, pressing his trembling forehead against the cold glass. "Have mercy! For the sake of the years we were together! I loved you, Maren! In my own way, I loved you!"
"You didn't love me, Drew," I said, standing up and smoothing down the front of my tailored jacket. "You used me. You fed on my kindness, stole my family's heritage, and tried to convince me I was lucky to have your crumbs. But my father built those docks with his bare hands. And today, they are coming back to where they belong."
I motioned to Jonathan Vance, who slid the formal criminal referral and civil restitution packet through the clerk's intake slot.
"The federal court has already issued the reversion order, Drew," Jonathan said calmly. "All docking royalties generated over the past ten years—amounting to approximately fourteen million dollars—have been entered as an enforceable judgment against any remaining Halston family assets and trust holdings. You will leave this prison as an absolute pauper."
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Drew’s hands fell from the glass, his jaw slacking in utter, irreparable ruin. He slumped onto the metal stool, staring blankly at the floor as the guard tapped his shoulder and ordered him to stand for the return to his cell.
I turned around and walked out of the facility into the bright Carolina sunshine, feeling my father's spirit resting in profound, eternal peace.
