Library
Search
Home / Romance / Heartbreak And Wars / Chapter 26: The Cage

Share

Chapter 26: The Cage

Author: Smart.T
last update Last Updated: 2025-09-10 22:53:56

Aloe's POV

The door opened with a soft click that made my entire body go rigid. I'd been staring at the ceiling for what felt like hours, counting the tiles, memorizing the pattern of water stains, anything to keep my mind from spiraling into panic.

But that sound that seems controlled, deliberate, exactly like every entrance Wakes had ever made into a room shattered my fragile composure.

"Hello, darling."

His voice was silk wrapped around steel, the same tone he'd used during our courtship when I'd been naive enough to mistake control for protection.

I didn't turn to look at him, couldn't bear to see that satisfied smile I knew would be playing at the corners of his mouth.

"You're awake. Good." The chair beside my bed creaked as he sat down, and I caught the scent of his cologne… expensive, suffocating, forever linked in my mind to fear. "We have so much to discuss."

I kept my eyes fixed on the ceiling. If I looked at him, if I saw that familiar mask of concerned husband, I might br
Continue to read this book for free
Scan code to download App
Previous Chapter Next Chapter
Locked Chapter

Latest chapter

  • Heartbreak And Wars   Chapter 180: Wakes's Final Chapter

    Wakes's POVAt eighty, I'd outlived most of my former business associates and all of my enemies. The doctor's diagnosis came during routine checkup stage four pancreatic cancer, prognosis measured in months rather than years."How long?" I asked."Six months, maybe less. I'm sorry, Mr. Savage."I called Evelyn first. She deserved to know before anyone else, deserved time to process that her father—the man who'd transformed from abuser to dedicated philanthropist was dying."Dad, no." Her voice broke. "We'll get second opinions, try treatments—""Evelyn, I'm eighty. I've had good life, especially the last twenty-eight years since prison. I made peace with my mortality long ago.""But I'm not ready.""No one's ever ready. But sweetheart, I need you to promise me something. The foundation don't let it become monument to me or Blake. Keep it focused on the work, not the founders. Can you do that?""I promise. Dad, I love you.""I love you too. More than I ever expressed adequately."I tol

  • Heartbreak And Wars   Chapter 179: Twenty-Five Years After

    Blake's POVTwenty-five years after Morrison's revenge was exposed, I woke to find Aloe watching me from across the pillow, an expression on her face I couldn't quite read."What?" I asked."You're fifty-six years old. We've been married twenty-eight years. Morrison's been dead a quarter century. And you're still here, still fighting, still building." She touched my face gently. "I'm just grateful."The foundation's twenty-fifth anniversary gala was that evening. Unlike previous milestone celebrations, this one felt different—less about proving Morrison wrong, more about celebrating what we'd built independent of his attempted destruction."Four hundred and twenty-three exonerations," Evelyn reported during her presentation. At forty-three, she'd been foundation chair for a decade, her leadership having expanded operations beyond anything Wakes or I had imagined. "Combined total of 5,847 years of wrongful imprisonment prevented. Reforms implemented in all fifty states plus three terri

  • Heartbreak And Wars   Chapter 178: Sofia's Retirement

    Sofia's POVI announced my retirement from the Second Chances Initiative on my fiftieth birthday, after twenty-five years of campaign management, foundation leadership, and advocacy work. It was time, Heron and I agreed, to focus on our daughter Maya and the life we'd built beyond the cause."Twenty-five years," Blake said when I told him my decision. "You've been part of this since before Morrison's revenge was even exposed. Sofia, you've been essential to everything we've accomplished.""Essential is overstating it. I just managed logistics while you did the actual fighting.""You did much more than logistics. You managed my first impossible campaign, coordinated my legislative agenda, became foundation's executive director. None of this works without you."The retirement announcement generated unexpected media attention. Stories appeared about "the woman behind the movement," profiling my role in Blake's campaigns, my foundation leadership, my marriage to Heron Lewis—the man who'd

  • Heartbreak And Wars   Chapter 177: Hope's Breakthrough Story

    Hope's POVThe story broke at three AM when a source finally sent the documents I'd been pursuing for eight months. I was twenty-three, working as investigative journalist for national news network, and I'd just received evidence of systematic prosecutorial misconduct in a major city's district attorney's office."Dad's going to freak out," I muttered to myself, reviewing the files. "This is Morrison-level misconduct, just ongoing instead of posthumous."The evidence showed deliberate suppression of exculpatory evidence in over forty cases, coerced witness testimony, and coordinated effort to maintain high conviction rates regardless of actual guilt. Three people had been executed based on these tainted prosecutions. Dozens more remained in prison.I called my editor at six AM. "I have it. Everything we needed to prove the DA's office has been systematically hiding evidence.""How solid?""Internal memos explicitly discussing suppression strategies. Testimony from assistant prosecutor

  • Heartbreak And Wars   Chapter 176: Daniel's First Case

    Blake's POVDaniel called from law school with news that made me simultaneously proud and terrified. "Dad, the innocence project accepted my application. I'm working on actual wrongful conviction case. Someone who's been in prison for twelve years for murder he didn't commit.""That's incredible, Daniel. Also overwhelming. Are you ready for that?""Probably not. But I've been preparing for this my entire life watching you fight Morrison's revenge, working at the foundation, studying criminal defense. If I'm not ready now, I never will be."The case consumed Daniel's final year of law school. He worked under supervision of experienced attorneys, but the passion was all his. Late-night calls where he discussed evidence, strategy, the crushing weight of knowing someone's freedom depended on finding the truth."It's harder than I expected," Daniel admitted during one call. "Marcus Henderson has been in prison since he was nineteen. He's thirty-one now. Twelve years stolen because eyewitne

  • Heartbreak And Wars    Chapter 175: Twenty Years After

    Aloe's POVTwenty years after Morrison's revenge was exposed, we gathered at the foundation's twentieth anniversary celebration. The event took place at the same Portland convention center where we'd celebrated the tenth anniversary, but everything else had changed.The foundation now operated in all fifty states, had staff exceeding five hundred, and had helped exonerate 312 people each representing years of life saved from wrongful imprisonment. The numbers were staggering, the impact immeasurable.James flew in from Seattle where he worked as structural engineer, his career completely divorced from criminal justice but successful and fulfilling. At twenty-seven, he'd recently gotten engaged to fellow engineer, building life unconnected to our family's dramatic history.Hope, now twenty-two, was investigative journalist for major news network, her documentary work having launched career that was already garnering awards and recognition. She'd maintained focus on criminal justice rep

More Chapters

You may also like

Explore and read good novels for free
Free access to a vast number of good novels on GoodNovel app. Download the books you like and read anywhere & anytime.
Read books for free on the app
SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP
DMCA.com Protection Status