ESCAPE FROM THE GILDED CAGE

Elena pulled the collar of the oversized flannel shirt up to hide her face, panic tightening around her throat. Julian hadn't just pursued her with guns; he had weaponized the entire legal system. Her face was plastered across the front page, framing her as an unstable, violent fugitive.

She bypassed the public telephone booths, knowing Julian would have local switchboards monitored. District Attorney Miller was no longer an option—if local law enforcement believed she was dangerous, they would shoot first and ask questions later.

She remembered a detail from Arthur’s files on the Sterling empire: a private safety deposit vault in Saint-Cloud, a small industrial town ten miles west of Riverdale. Thomas Vance had maintained an off-the-books emergency lockbox there before his death.

Stealing a bicycle from an unlocked rack behind a diner, Elena pedaled down back roads until her legs burned, arriving in Saint-Cloud by mid-morning. The bank was an imposing brick institution that had stood for a century.

Washing her face in a gas station restroom, she smoothed her messy hair and walked into the bank lobby, trying to steady her shaking hands.

""I need to access box four-one-eight,"" she told the elderly clerk, sliding Arthur's spare emergency cash across the marble counter alongside her mother's maiden name written on a slip of paper.

The clerk examined her suspiciously, then glanced at the ledger. ""Signature, please.""

Elena signed her mother’s name with fluid precision. The clerk nodded and led her into the cool, fluorescent-lit vault. He unlocked the drawer, slid out a heavy steel box, and left her in a private viewing booth.

Inside was a passport under an alias, fifty thousand dollars in unmarked currency, and a handwritten letter from her father.