Ted never left his cell.
That was the part no one could explain.
Two Internal Affairs officers sat across from him in a narrow interview room deep inside the correctional facility. Cameras watched from every corner. Every second of Ted's incarceration had been logged, reviewed, replayed.
No unauthorized movement.No missing minutes.No broken protocol.
And yet, a man had been taken.
"You violated federal restrictions," one of the officers said, sliding a file across the table. "Multiple counts. Witness intimidation. Indirect contact. Conspiracy."
Ted didn't look at the file.
He leaned back in his chair, hands folded calmly in front of him.
"I've been very transparent about my intentions," Ted said. "I want my wife back."
"She is not your wife," the second officer snapped.
Ted smiled faintly.
"She still has my name," he replied.
The room tightened.
"You coordinated criminal activity from inside a federal facility," the first officer said. "Do you understand how serious that is?"
Ted shrugged.
"I didn't make any calls," he said. "Didn't send messages. Didn't touch a device."
"You don't need to," the officer replied. "We know how proxies work."
Ted's smile faded.
Just slightly.
"You think wanting something is illegal?" he asked. "You think silence is a crime?"
Neither officer answered.
After a long moment, the second officer stood.
"Effective immediately," he said, "you're being placed in administrative segregation. Solitary confinement. No privileges. No communication. No contact. No exceptions."
Ted nodded once.
"As expected," he said.
A guard opened the door.
Before standing, Ted looked up.
"I never hid who I am," he said calmly. "Or what I want."
Then he said nothing more.
Not when they asked about the warehouse.Not when they showed him images.Not when they asked about Mark.
Ted closed his mouth.
And stayed silent.
The kind of silence lawyers feared.
Grace learned the news hours later.
"He's being moved to SHU," Detective Harris explained. "Twenty-three-hour lockdown. No access. No contact with anyone."
Grace should have felt relief.
She didn't.
"He never left his cell," Grace said quietly. "Did he?"
Harris shook his head.
"No."
Grace closed her eyes.
That was worse.
Because it meant Ted didn't need freedom to destroy lives.
Lauren didn't leave the couch.
She stared at the wall, phone clutched in her hands, waiting for a call that never came.
"They don't know where he is," she whispered. "Do they?"
Grace sat beside her.
"No," she said. "Not yet."
Lauren's voice broke.
"Mark didn't do anything wrong."
Grace wrapped her arms around her.
"I know."
That night, Grace stood alone at her window.
A prison hundreds of miles away locked a man in concrete silence.
And still, his reach remained.
Ted had lost privileges.Lost contact.Lost access.
But not power.
And Grace understood something that made her blood run cold.
If Ted could do all of this without leaving his cell—
Then whatever came next wouldn't require him to speak at all.