Chapter 18 - Corbin's Broken Plea
Two days after the liquidation of Mercer Capital, Corbin’s attorney formally requested an emergency private deposition at the Polk County Courthouse.
Sterling knew the attempted murder charges would result in a mandatory life sentence without parole under Iowa state law.
His only remaining hope was to beg for a plea deal, and to do that, he needed my personal signature on a prosecutorial waiver.
I agreed to the meeting, not out of mercy, but because I wanted Corbin to look at the woman he had discarded into the snow.
The deposition room was small, lit by flickering fluorescent tubes, with two armed bailiffs stationed against the reinforced iron door.
When Corbin was led into the room, I almost did not recognize the man I had lived with for five long years.
The tailored Italian suits, the expensive cologne, and the arrogant smirk had been replaced by a wrinkled orange jumpsuit and plastic slip-on shoes.
His hair was greasy and unwashed, his cheeks hollow, and his hands were cuffed to a chain wrapped tightly around his waist.
He looked up as I took a seat across from him, my father standing silently behind my shoulder like an iron monument.
Corbin burst into tears the moment our eyes met, his shoulders heaving with pathetic, desperate sobs.
"Clara... please, God, Clara, look at what they’re doing to me," Corbin wept, his snot dripping onto the stainless-steel table.
"The inmates... they know what I’m in here for. They won't leave me alone, Clara!"
"Arthur says the state wants to put me away for life at Fort Madison Penitentiary!"
"I will die in there, Clara! I swear to God I won't survive a single month!"
I sat completely still, watching him unravel without an ounce of pity in my chest.
"You didn't care if Wren survived twenty minutes in that blizzard, Corbin," I replied, my voice steady, flat, and absolute.
"You locked the front door of our home, turned off the outside lights, and went back inside to drink champagne with Elaine."
"I was sick! Elaine made me do it, she threatened to ruin me!" Corbin screamed, rattling his wrist chains against the steel.
"I love you, Clara! I love our baby! I swear on my mother’s grave, I never wanted Wren to get hurt!"
"Do not speak my daughter's name in this room," Colonel Everett commanded, his voice dropping into a register that made the bailiffs instinctively stiffen.
Corbin flinched, shrinking back into his chair as if he had been struck across the mouth.
"I signed the liquidation order this morning, Corbin," I continued, leaning forward so he could hear every syllable clearly.
"Your sports car was towed, your luxury watch collection was seized by federal marshals, and your penthouse has been put up for public auction."
"You don't own a single stitch of clothing outside of that orange uniform."
"You will spend the rest of your life staring at concrete walls, remembering the night you thought you could freeze us out of existence."
"Clara, no! Sign the waiver! Please, Clara, for the love of God, don't let them send me to Fort Madison!" Corbin shrieked, reaching out his cuffed hands as the bailiffs grabbed his arms.
I stood up, smoothed down the front of my jacket, and turned my back on him.
May you like
"The only thing I will ever sign for you, Corbin, is your final judgment of divorce," I said, walking toward the exit.
His screams and curses echoed down the concrete hallway long after the iron door slammed shut between us.
