Time/Date: TC1853.01.19 (Evening)
Location: Metropolitan Police Station - Conference Room Three, 4th Ring
The holding cell smelled of disinfectant and old coffee—institutional efficiency meeting human desperation. Edmund Brenner sat on the narrow bench, elbows on knees, hands clasped so tightly his knuckles had gone white. The fluorescent lights above hummed their mechanical song, harsh and unforgiving, casting shadows that made the small space feel even more confining.
He'd given them everything. Every terrible truth he'd buried for seventeen years. Eveline's death during that horrible confrontation. Trina Wang's murder—that poor girl who'd witnessed too much, silenced on his order. The baby swaps. The poisoning scheme. The DNA tampering. All of it, laid bare in confession after confession until his voice had gone hoarse and his soul felt scraped raw.
But he'd held one thing back. One small protection in the wreckage of his life.
Serenya.
