Shuyin's bruised hand trembled over the stark white pages. "No," she whispered, the word scraping her raw throat.
Yueling's sweet facade vanished in an instant, replaced by naked contempt. "You really don't understand your situation, do you?" she hissed, leaning in. "You have nothing. You are nothing."
Madam Chen's eyes turned to chips of ice. "Let me be perfectly clear, then," she said, her tone chillingly calm. "If you don't sign these papers right now, we will have your grandmother's body exhumed. We will demand a second, more... thorough autopsy. We have experts on retainers who will testify that the poison was administered by you over a much longer period. That it was cold, calculated premeditation. They will dig up that sweet old woman and cut her open again, and I will make sure every news outlet, every tabloid, has the most graphic pictures. Her memory will be forever tied to a scandalous, gruesome murder investigation."
The horror of it stole the air from Shuyin's lungs. They would desecrate her Popo's body, disturb her eternal peace. They would use the woman she loved most in this world as a weapon against her from beyond the grave.
"And if, by some miracle, you ever get out of here," Madam Chen continued with infuriating calm, "you will find yourself facing a mountain of new charges. Tax evasion on the shares. Fraud. Embezzlement. We've already laid the groundwork. The evidence is impeccable. You will never see the outside of a prison cell again. You will die in here, alone and forgotten."
She slid a pen across the table, the sound unnaturally loud in the silent room. "Sign. Or we destroy the only person who ever loved you, for a second time."
Shuyin's vision swam, the room tilting on its axis. There were no choices left. Every path led to ruin, but only one path spared her grandmother's final rest. Her hand, heavy with the weight of utter defeat, closed around the pen. She didn't look at the pages, couldn't bear to see the words. She just scrawled her name on the designated lines, the signature a messy, broken thing, a testament to her surrender.
Madam Chen smiled, a tight, victorious expression that didn't reach her eyes. She gathered the signed papers neatly, tucking them back into the folder as if they were a precious treasure. "There. That wasn't so hard, was it?"
Yueling stood, smoothing down the ivory wedding dress, her wedding dress. "It fits me so much better anyway," she said, her voice dripping with malice. "Just like Zeyan."
They left without a backward glance, the door shutting firmly behind them, sealing her in with her loss. Shuyin sat alone in the hollow silence of the visitation room, the pen rolling from her numb fingers to clatter on the table.
They had taken everything. Her future, her freedom, her name, and now, the last physical connection to her grandmother. The shares were gone.
The guard came to lead her back to her cell. As she walked through the corridors, Shuyin's mind was a void, her spirit crushed under the absolute weight of her defeat. The shares were gone. Her grandmother's memory had been turned into a weapon against her. Every last thing had been taken away.
When they reached the yard entrance, she could see her cellmates waiting in the distance. Tank stood with her arms crossed, Blade and Razor flanking her. Even from far away, Shuyin could see the tension in their bodies, the focused intensity with which they watched her approach.
The moment Shuyin came through the door, Tank's expression shifted. Her eyes narrowed as she took in Shuyin's face, not just the physical injuries, but the look of complete defeat, the profound emptiness in her eyes.
"What happened?" Tank demanded, stepping forward.
The guard holding Shuyin's arm jerked her roughly. "Back off. She's going back to her cell."
"What did they do to her?" Blade asked, her voice sharp and edged with threat.
"None of your business," another guard said, moving to intercept them. "Get back to your section now."
But Tank did not retreat. She could see that something fundamental had broken in Shuyin, that whatever happened in that visitation room had destroyed what little hope the girl had left. "Tell me what happened, princess."
Shuyin opened her mouth, but no words came out. Just a choked sound, caught between a sob and a gasp. The pen was still clutched in her good hand, her knuckles white around it.
"They made her sign something," Blade said, her sharp eyes catching the detail. "They came here to take more from her."
"Is that true?" Razor's voice was tight with fury. "They came to harm her further while she was already this vulnerable?"
The guard yanked Shuyin forward. "Enough! Back to your cell, all of you!"