15

Lucian rearranges his high-powered day to reach Fraus Correctional Center before Sloane, having learned via contacts that she plans a secret visit. In the parking lot, he confronts Sloane about going behind their friends’ backs and demands to accompany her for safety; after tense bargaining, she relents.

Inside the bleak visitation room, Sloane nervously opens the conversation with Mary Louise Upshaw while Lucian guides from the sidelines. Mary Louise explains she was stopped with marijuana in her car that her teenage son and a friend had stashed without her knowledge. After learning the truth, she pled guilty to protect him, accepting a prosecutor’s recommendation of roughly six months—only for the judge to reject it and impose 20 years.

Mary Louise details a string of overburdened public defenders and an abandoned appeal. She has earned two degrees and started a prison writing program, and her son Allen is now in his final year of law school, still determined to help her. Lucian and Sloane register the injustice; Sloane worries about giving false hope, while Lucian focuses on evidence gaps and possible legal strategies.

Leaving the prison, Sloane is fired up to help and plans to loop in her partners and Maeve. Lucian, unsettled by the setting and past memories, nonetheless offers contacts specializing in appeals and commutations, and tells Sloane her father would be proud. They agree the next step is to speak with Allen, with the partners involved.

As Sloane prepares for a dating-app meetup, Lucian’s protectiveness and jealousy surface. He grills her on safety measures; she outlines thorough precautions and rushes off, leaving Lucian rattled by attraction and worry.