Chapter 12 - A Visit Behind Plexiglass
November brought freezing rain that battered the thick glass windows of the federal detention center visiting room.
I sat on a hard plastic stool,
staring at my reflection in the reinforced plexiglass partition before a heavy metal door clicked open on the opposite side.
Ethan shuffled into the room,
dressed in a coarse orange jumpsuit,
his right leg still stiff from the orthopedic cast that hadn't yet been removed.
His hair was unkempt,
his face hollowed out by stress and poor nutrition,
and his eyes carried the haunted look of a man who had finally realized the trap of his own making.
He sat down heavily on the metal stool,
picking up the heavy black telephone receiver with a trembling hand.
I mirrored his movement,
pressing the receiver against my ear,
separated from my betrayer by two inches of shatterproof glass.
'Claire,
' he whispered,
his voice cracking with a pathetic mixture of desperation and lingering entitlement.
'I knew you would come.
I knew you couldn't just abandon me after five years.
' I stared at him through the glass,
feeling neither anger nor pity—only a profound,
hollow distance,
as if looking at a specimen under a microscope.
'I didn't come here as your wife,
Ethan,
' I said,
my voice calm and steady through the audio speaker.
'I came here to deliver the finalized divorce papers.
My attorney filed them this morning under grounds of severe marital abandonment,
fraud,
and criminal deception.
' Ethan’s breath hitched,
his hand tightening around the receiver until his knuckles turned white.
'Claire,
please,
' he pleaded,
slamming his palm against the plexiglass partition.
'Don't do this now! I’m facing twenty years! I need someone on the outside! Mia won't even answer my calls! If you divorce me,
I have nothing left!' 'You had a good life,
a faithful partner,
and an honest home,
Ethan,
' I replied,
my gaze unyielding and cold.
'You traded all of that for greed and lies.
You built this prison long before the federal judges handed down your indictment.
All I am doing is locking the door from the outside.
' He stared at me with wide,
tear-filled eyes,
his mouth opening and closing like a fish gasping for air,
but no words came out.
I placed the receiver back onto its cradle,
stood up smoothly from the stool,
May you like
and turned away without looking back,
leaving him alone in the fluorescent-lit isolation of his own ruin.
