Chapter 6 - The Glass Partition
The visiting room at the Fairfield County Correctional Facility was cold, smelling faintly of industrial bleach and old floor wax.
I sat on a metal chair on my side of the thick glass partition.
A moment later, a heavy metal door clicked open, and Derek was led inside by an armed guard.
He wore a bright orange jumpsuit. His hands were cuffed at his waist, his hair was messy and unwashed, and the sharp, arrogant confidence he had carried for years was completely gone. He looked small, broken, and terrified.
He sat down heavily on the stool across from me and picked up the black plastic telephone receiver.
I picked up mine, holding it to my ear without speaking.
"Allison..." his voice cracked over the static-filled line. "Thank God you came. You have to help me. Please. You have to tell the prosecutor to drop the grand larceny charge. If I get convicted on the federal counts, I’m looking at fifteen years in maximum security!"
I looked at him through the glass, my expression entirely calm. "You didn't ask me to come here to give me offshore assets, did you, Derek?"
Derek pressed his hand against the glass, tears streaming down his hollow cheeks. "Allison, I made a mistake! A terrible, stupid mistake! My mother pushed me into it! She was the one who insisted we keep you in Albany! She said if Victoria’s father found out I was married to a girl without a finished degree, the medical merger would fall apart!"
"Your mother didn't forge my grandfather's signature, Derek," I said, my voice deadpan. "Your mother didn't dilute Caleb’s milk when he was two years old. You did that."
"I was desperate!" Derek sobbed, clutching the phone tightly. "The market was crashing! I was drowning in debt! I thought if I could just get the Sterling merger finalized, I would pay back every single dollar to your trust! I was doing it for our future, Allison!"
"Our future?" I let out a soft, incredulous laugh. "You were living in a fifty-room mansion with another woman while your son was sleeping under a leaking ceiling in a winter storm!"
"I still love you!" Derek pleaded, his eyes wild with terror. "We can fix this! I’ll sign over my parental rights! I’ll never see Caleb again if that’s what you want! Just tell the judge I suffered a mental breakdown! Tell them you forgive me!"
I looked into his eyes—the eyes of a man who had spent his entire life using people, discarding them when they were no longer useful, and playing the victim whenever he was caught.
"I didn't come here to forgive you, Derek," I said softly, leaning closer to the glass. "And I didn't come here to save you."
"Then why did you come?!" he yelled, his voice echoing off the concrete walls as the guard behind him took a step forward.
"I came so you could look at me one last time," I said, holding his desperate gaze with complete, unshakeable strength. "I want you to remember this face every single day you spend in that cell. Because the woman sitting across from you is no longer your victim. I am the owner of the estate you tried to steal, the mother of the son you abandoned, and the woman who is going to make sure you never hurt another human being again."
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I hung up the phone receiver, set it neatly back on its hook, stood up, and walked out of the room.
Behind me, through the thick reinforced glass, I could hear Derek’s desperate, hysterical screaming echoing down the hallway, until the heavy iron door slammed shut, cutting off his voice forever.
