The female police officer fulfilled the last wish of the inmate before his death…

The iron door groaned as I stepped into the dim light of Cell 402. Elias sat on his cot, his back a map of scars and his eyes fixed on the floor. He didn’t look like a monster anymore; he looked like a man who had run out of time.

I cleared my throat, the sound echoing off the damp concrete walls. “You have the right to a final request, Elias,” I said, my voice steadier than I felt. He looked up, and for the first time in three years, I saw a flicker of something human.

He didn’t ask for a steak dinner or a cigarette like the others usually did. Instead, he leaned forward, his voice a ragged whisper that barely carried across the bars. “I don’t want food,” he rasped. “I just need to see her one last time.”

My heart hammered against my ribs because I knew exactly who he meant. His mother hadn’t visited in twenty years, and the warden had strictly forbidden any contact. If I agreed to this, I wasn’t just breaking a rule—I was risking my entire career.

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