Silent Heights Penitentiary

Thalia had woken up that morning and showered Collin Tony with as many kisses as possible. She had also left long lists of instructions for Flora, who had volunteered to take care of him because she thought that that was the last time that she would see her son as a free woman; at least, those were her thoughts, but she never dreamed of this.

Their Public Defender had conveniently hidden this from them. It may have been that Thalia, indeed, did not qualify for it. But come what may, she had been added to that pilot program, and she was over the moon about it.

She had just had about a month to be a mother, and she loved it. Thalia was thankful that she had been considered to be a part of that.

That heart-wrenching separation she had envisioned had never come to pass. She watched as their buss rolled through two sets of chain-link fences topped with razor wires and knew that she had arrived at her new home.