Chapter 12: Confronting the Architect**
Two weeks before the trial, Mark requested a private meeting with Elena through his counsel, claiming he would enter a full guilty plea to all counts—including the reopened investigation into Claire Vance’s death—on one condition: he wanted ten minutes with Elena in the visiting room.
Diaz advised against it, but Elena agreed. She needed to close the chapter on her own terms.
She sat behind the thick plexiglass partition at the county detention center. Mark wore an orange jumpsuit, his hair unkempt, the polished veneer completely stripped away.
"You look well, Elena," he said, his voice quiet through the handset. "The fog has cleared."
"Why, Mark? You had everything. Wealth, respect, a family."
May you like
Mark gave a hollow laugh. "Everything was borrowed, Elena. My father left the firm in millions of dollars of debt. Claire found out, and she was going to expose me. Then you came along with your family trust. I thought I could manage it. But once you start building a wall of lies, you have to keep adding bricks until it falls on you."
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