Chapter 2 - The Paper She Was Told To Hide
The guards wanted the visit to continue normally.
They wanted me sitting on one side of the table.
Chloe sitting on the other.
A father and daughter separated by glass, rules, and a lifetime of mistakes.
But nothing felt normal anymore.
I kept looking at the folded paper in her hand.
“Chloe,” I whispered.
“Where did you get that?”
She looked toward Warden Mitchell.
That small movement told me everything.
Someone had scared her.
Someone had warned her.
The warden cleared his throat.
“Children misunderstand things.”
I stared at him.
“My daughter didn’t misunderstand my name.”
The room went quiet.
Chloe slowly sat beside me.
She held the paper against her chest.
“Daddy, I wasn’t supposed to bring this.”
“Who told you that?”
She looked down.
“My grandma.”
My heart tightened.
My mother had refused to visit me since my conviction.
She had never defended me.
Never questioned the evidence.
Never said I was innocent.
But now my daughter was carrying something she wanted hidden.
I looked at the warden.
“Why does my mother know about this?”
He didn’t answer.
And that silence told me more than words.
Then Chloe whispered something else.
“Daddy… Grandma said they made you take the blame.”
I froze.
Because that was exactly what I had been saying for five years.
Nobody believed me.
Not the jury.
Not the media.
Not even my own family.
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But my eight-year-old daughter had just repeated the words that destroyed my life.
📖 Chapter 3 reveals the first clue inside Chloe’s note and the connection between the warden and Gavin’s conviction. 👇
