Related Chapters (2)
The Long Solitude
Words: 3187 · Source Novel:: The Epistolary Executioner
Back in Sainte-Michel, officers Lemke and Lindsey employ starvation, freezing damp, and endless silence to shatter Adrian’s will. Still he refuses to inform. A visiting female journalist, Claire Morel, begins a clandestine correspondence with him through bribed guards. She retraces the old scandal and discovers a sealed deposition: Élodie’s betrayal had been coerced by her father under threat of ruining the family, and her subsequent marriage was a living purgatory.
The Informant’s Cage
Words: 3247 · Source Novel:: The Epistolary Executioner
Valkenrath, 1840. Adrian Ward arrives at Sainte-Michel Prison. Warden Calloway demands he spy on a political prisoner in exchange for light and food. Adrian refuses with cold contempt, declaring he is no traitor to any man. He is thrown into a subterranean hole—the “Confessor’s Coffin.” In the absolute darkness, he resolves to write the true chronicle of his crimes, beginning with the scent of parchment and betrayal.

