A Million Dollars Too Late Chapter 04

A Million Dollars Too Late Chapter 04

On the day of my trial, they marched me out of the transport van in handcuffs and ankle shackles.

A mob had gathered outside the courthouse—people who had watched the livestream. They waved signs scrawled with obscenities.

The moment they spotted me, the crowd surged forward.

“Thief!”

“Shameless whore!”

“Get the hell out of Chicago!”

Water bottles and rotting vegetables rained down on me. Then a woman broke through the barricade. She grabbed a fistful of my hair and slapped me—twice—hard across the face.

I hit the concrete steps hard. Blood started soaking through the knees of my pants.

Inside the courtroom, the lawyer Marcello had hired went for the throat.

“The defendant, Audrey Lane, has no legitimate employment.”

“She exploited an illicit relationship with Mr. Marcello Ravello to extract large sums of money and property over an extended period.”

“Upon learning of Mr. Ravello’s impending marriage, she acted out of resentment and deliberately stole high-value jewelry.”

“We have witnesses, physical evidence, and the live stream footage. We request the maximum penalty.”

I sat in the defendant’s chair.

And my brain cancer chose that exact moment to flare.

A piercing screech filled my ears. I couldn’t hear the judge. I had no strength left to defend myself.

The Ravello family controlled the best lawyers in Chicago and half the media.

The moment Marcello decided not to believe me, I had already lost.

I was sentenced to prison. They put me in a cell with eight women serving time for violent crimes.

All of them had seen Valeria’s live stream. All of them believed I was the homewrecker who stole jewelry.

Every meal, they spit in my food. Sometimes they dumped my tray straight into the trash and made me get on my knees to pick it up.

The beatings and starvation made everything worse. Whenever the pain got too much, I slammed my head against the concrete wall.

That brief flash of dizziness was the only relief I could get from the thing eating me alive inside my skull.

A week into my sentence, someone came to visit. I thought it was my parents. But it was Marcello and Valeria on the other side of the glass.

Valeria picked up the phone first.

“Audrey, how are you liking it in there? You’ve gotten so thin. I almost didn’t recognize you.”

Marcello took the phone from her. There was no pity in his eyes.

“You did this to yourself. You got greedy. Do your time. Fix your attitude.”

“When you get out in three years, I’ll find you a cleaning job somewhere. At least you won’t starve.”

His tone made me sick. I was about to tell them both to go to hell when Valeria leaned close to the glass and dropped her voice.

“Oh, I almost forgot to tell you the good news.”

“Your parents were selling that dump of a house to pay your fines. A few days ago, they went to meet a buyer.”

“A runaway truck hit them.”

Every muscle in my body went rigid.

Valeria covered her mouth and laughed. “Your father died on the spot. Your mother got lucky—just lost both her legs and a few ribs. She’s still in the ICU.”

“No.” My hands started shaking. “You’re lying.”

Valeria’s smile stretched wider. “You’re a walking curse. You killed your own father. You crippled your mother.”

“Honestly? Every breath you take is a waste.”

The last thread of hope inside me snapped. I slammed my fists against the bulletproof glass. “Valeria, I hope you die screaming! Marcello—I’ll haunt you till the day you die!”

The visit window closed. Two guards dragged me back to my cell.

Grief sent the tumor into overdrive. My body hit the floor and started seizing. Blood poured from my nose, and the darkness didn’t just creep in—it swallowed everything.

Just before I blacked out for the last time, one thought cut through the darkness—If I had never met Marcello five years ago, would my life have turned out differently?

At the exact same moment, across the city, Marcello sat on a couch inside Chicago’s most expensive bridal boutique, watching Valeria try on wedding gowns.

His phone vibrated.

Enzo’s voice came through the line.

“Don. Miss Lane just suffered a cerebral hemorrhage inside the prison. She’s dead.”