Chapter 7 - Behind Iron Bars
The concrete corridors of the Franklin County Correctional Facility smelled of harsh bleach,
stale air,
and industrial disinfectant.
The heavy iron doors slammed shut with a deafening,
metallic clatter that echoed down the long row of holding cells.
Inside a small,
windowless visitation room divided by a thick pane of bulletproof glass sat Madison Whitmore.
The high-priced designer clothes,
the flawless makeup,
and the manicured nails that had once defined her identity were completely gone.
She wore an oversized orange jumpsuit,
her unwashed hair tied back in a messy knot,
her face pale and blotched from hours of continuous crying.
On the other side of the glass sat Evelyn Whitmore,
draped in an expensive trench coat,
her hands trembling as she picked up the black plastic receiver hanging on the wall.
Madison grabbed her receiver on the opposite side,
slamming it against her ear so hard her knuckle cracked.
"Why am I still in here, Mom?!"
Madison screamed through the phone line,
her voice crackling with raw,
unfiltered panic.
"Why haven't you posted my bail?!"
"The guards took my jewelry!"
"They put me in a room with five other women!"
"Do you have any idea what it's like in here?!"
"Madison,"
Evelyn whispered,
her voice trembling as she looked around the visitation room to see if any guards were listening,
"keep your voice down."
"We are doing everything we can."
"Arthur Pendelton is trying to get a second bail hearing,"
"but the judge frozen all our personal accounts!"
"I don't have access to the cash reserves!"
"What do you mean you don't have access?!"
Madison shrieked,
her face contorting with fury.
"Use the offshore funds!"
"Use the money Ryan transferred from the company!"
"We can't!"
Evelyn hissed,
leaning her forehead against the glass.
"Claire took the police to the corporate office!"
"She brought a forensic accounting team!"
"They seized the servers,"
"the ledgers,"
"and the bank records!"
"They found the Nevis shell company, Madison!"
"The federal prosecutors are looking into wire fraud right now!"
Madison's breath hitched in her throat,
her eyes widening in total terror.
"They... they found the accounts?"
"Yes!"
Evelyn cried,
a single tear cutting through her heavy foundation.
"Ryan was taken into custody two hours ago for corporate embezzlement and obstruction!"
"He is being held in the men's wing right down the hall from you!"
"Ryan is in jail?!"
Madison yelled,
striking her fist against the bulletproof glass,
leaving a smudged handprint on the surface.
"This is all his fault!"
"He told me Claire wouldn't do anything!"
"He told me she was weak,"
"that she was afraid of him,"
"that she would never dare call the police!"
"He stood right there on the stairs and told me to put her in her place!"
Evelyn stiffened,
her gray eyes narrowing as she stared at her daughter through the glass.
"What did you just say?"
Evelyn asked,
her voice dropping to an icy whisper.
"Ryan told you to hit her?"
"Yes!"
Madison sobbed,
breaking down into hysterical gasps for air.
"When Claire said she wasn't my maid,"
"I turned around and looked at Ryan!"
"He nodded at me, Mom!"
"He gave me a look that said 'teach her a lesson'!"
"He watched me knock her down!"
"He watched me punch her in the face until she stopped moving!"
"And now I'm the one sitting in orange clothes while he blames everything on me!"
"You need to shut your mouth right now!"
Evelyn commanded sharply,
her motherly concern vanishing,
replaced by cold,
calculating self-preservation.
"If the prosecutor hears that Ryan encouraged you,"
"he will be charged with criminal conspiracy to commit assault!"
"That carries a mandatory ten-year prison sentence!"
"I don't care about Ryan!"
Madison screamed into the receiver,
her voice cracking with venomous rage.
"He left me in here!"
"He protected himself!"
"He sent texts telling Claire she deserved it!"
"If I'm going down,"
"I'm taking Ryan down with me!"
"I'm going to tell the prosecutor that Ryan planned the whole thing!"
"I'm going to tell them he wanted Claire injured so she would sign the asset transfer forms without reading them!"
Evelyn dropped her receiver onto the metal cradle with a sharp bang.
She stood up from her chair,
her heart hammering against her ribs,
her face ghastly white.
Through the glass,
Madison continued to scream and hammer her fists,
her voice muffled and silent behind the thick partition.
The guard stepped forward,
grabbing Madison's arm and forcing her back toward the cell block.
Evelyn turned and walked out into the cold afternoon air,
realizing that the golden family structure she had spent thirty years building on lies,
May you like
cruelty,
and vanity was eating itself alive from the inside out.
