My fiancée mocked me as a “useless cripple” in front of my entire family, certain the accident had stripped away my power and fortune. She had no idea my injuries were a lie—or that the quiet maid kneeling beside my wheelchair was about to help me expose everyone who had betrayed me.

The visiting room at the state penitentiary was cold, gray, and smelled of cheap floor disinfectant.

I sat on one side of the thick glass partition. Moments later, the heavy metal door opened, and Vanessa was led in by two armed guards.

She looked unrecognizable. The glamorous socialite in designer silver dresses was gone. In her place was a pale, hollowed-out woman wearing an orange jumpsuit, her hair tied back in a messy knot, her hands cuffed at her waist.

She sat down heavily across from me and picked up the telephone handset with trembling, bruised fingers.

I picked up mine.

"Came to gloat, Julian?" she rasped, her voice bitter and hollow. "Came to see the 'cripple' beat the princess?"

"I don't waste time gloating, Vanessa," I said calmly. "I came to offer you a deal."

She let out a harsh, sarcastic laugh. "A deal? From you? You put me in here!"

"You put yourself in here when you decided to poison my medicine and sell my company," I shot back smoothly. "But I know about Victor."

Vanessa froze. The color drained from her lips. "Victor... I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't play dumb," I said. "Victor promised you fifty million dollars and safe passage to Monaco once Vance Global fell apart. But he abandoned you the moment the police walked into the ballroom. He hasn't paid your legal fees, has he?"

Vanessa gripped the phone receiver until her knuckles turned white. Tears of rage welled in her eyes. "He promised he would protect me! He said you were weak!"

"Victor uses people until they are useless, then discards them," I said, leaning closer to the glass. "Give me the access codes to Victor’s offshore accounts and the evidence that links him to the crash. Do that, and I will instruct my legal team to drop the state treason charges. You'll still serve time for fraud, but you won't spend the rest of your life behind bars."

Vanessa stared at me, her mind racing as she weighed her pure hatred for me against her desperate desire for freedom.