Chapter 7 - Behind the Glass
The visitor room at the county detention center was cold, sterile, and smelled of cheap floor wax.
Victoria Sterling sat behind the thick reinforced glass wall, wearing a plain orange jumpsuit. Her silver hair, usually styled impeccably, was pulled back untidily, and deep dark circles sat beneath her eyes.
When Alexander sat down on the stool across from her and picked up the plastic telephone receiver, Victoria’s eyes flared with a mix of anger and desperation.
"Alexander," Victoria said through the phone speaker, her voice harsh and raspy. "You have to tell the District Attorney to drop the criminal fraud charges. This family cannot survive a public trial!"
Alexander held the receiver loosely, looking at his mother with a sense of profound sadness. "You aren't worried about the family, Mother. You are worried about prison."
"I did everything for you!" Victoria yelled, slamming her hand against the glass frame. "I built this empire with your father! That girl—that Lauren—was weak! She had no family background, no corporate connections! She would have dragged you down to the gutter!"
"She didn't drag me down, Mother," Alexander said quietly. "She was the only person in my life who loved me for who I was, not for the Sterling name or the corporate shares."
"And what about the child?!" Victoria spat. "Digging through dumpsters like a street rat! She was bringing shame upon our bloodline!"
Alexander’s eyes turned into cold iron.
"Sophia wasn't bringing shame on our bloodline, Mother," Alexander said, his voice dropping into a razor-sharp whisper. "She was surviving the cruelty of a grandmother who preferred to let an innocent child starve rather than admit she was wrong."
Victoria opened her mouth to argue, but the words seemed to catch in her throat. For the first time, she saw that her son was completely gone from her reach.
"I didn't come here to negotiate, Victoria," Alexander continued firmly. "I came to tell you that I am selling the main estate in Pinecrest. The funds will be donated to a charity for single mothers and low-income families in the East Side."
"You... you wouldn't dare!" Victoria gasped, her eyes wide with horror. "That estate has been in the Sterling family for three generations!"
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"The family legacy changes today," Alexander said, standing up from his stool. "You will serve your sentence. And you will never step foot near my wife or my daughter ever again."
Alexander hung up the phone receiver, ignoring Victoria’s frantic pounding against the glass, and walked out of the detention center into the bright afternoon sun.
