Chapter 14 - The Midnight Confession From A Jail Cell
Three days after the double arrest of Daniel and his mother,
the county correctional facility placed another urgent,
collect call to my private cell phone late in the evening.
I sat at my grand mahogany desk,
the moonlight streaming through the large library windows,
and calmly pressed the button to accept the charges.
"Evelyn,"
Daniel's voice rasped through the speaker,
sounding broken,
exhausted,
and utterly stripped of the arrogant bravado he had wielded like a weapon against me for years.
"Please,
you have to listen to me,
my lawyer says I am looking at a minimum of twelve years in a federal penitentiary."
I didn't speak,
holding the phone tightly to my ear,
listening to the pathetic sound of his heavy,
desperate breathing echoing from the concrete cell.
"Mom is in the holding cell right down the hall,"
he wept softly,
his voice cracking with genuine terror.
"She broke her wrist when the guards pinned her down during her freakout,
and they won't even give her proper pain medication."
"Karma is a remarkably efficient system,
Daniel,"
I replied,
my voice completely devoid of any warmth,
pity,
or emotional attachment.
"You watched me cry,
you watched your mother mock me while my wrists were bruised by your violent grip,
and you truly believed there would never be a reckoning."
"I was under so much stress with the company,"
he stammered pathetically,
trying to resurrect the tired,
abusive excuses he had relied on for years.
"Stress does not make a man steal millions of dollars,
beat his wife,
or treat human beings like disposable garbage,"
I interrupted sharply,
cutting off his manipulation attempt before it could even begin.
"I am signing the final divorce papers tomorrow morning,
Daniel,
and my legal team is ensuring that every single asset you ever claimed to own is transferred back into my sole possession."
"You can't do this to me,"
he screamed,
his panic instantly overriding his brief moment of remorse.
"I am your husband,
we are a family."
"You were a parasite,"
I corrected him coldly,
"and the host has finally rejected you."
I slammed my finger down on the screen,
disconnecting the call for the final time in my life,
May you like
watching the digital clock turn to midnight as a brand-new,
unshackled chapter of my existence officially began.
