Chapter 7 - Confronting the MonsterThe visitation room was cold, sterile, and smelled of stale floor wax and industrial disinfectant.
Vivian Hale was brought in by a correctional officer. She was wearing a baggy, orange jumpsuit, her hair unwashed, her pristine manicure gone, and her face looking sunken and deeply lined without her expensive makeup.
When she saw me sitting on the other side of the thick glass window, her eyes flashed with a pathetic mixture of desperation and lingering venom.
She picked up the plastic telephone receiver. I picked up mine.
"Emma!" Vivian cried, her voice echoing weakly through the speaker. "You have to tell them to let me go! I’m an old woman! I can't stay in this terrible place! Daniel is in jail, they took my apartment, I have nothing!"
"You have exactly what you deserve, Vivian," I said, my voice smooth, cold, and utterly devoid of pity.
Vivian pressed her hands against the glass. "I was your mother-in-law! I took you in when you pretended to be a poor orphan! You lied to us! You played us!"
"I came here to show you something," I said, ignoring her pathetic screeching.
I pulled out a legal document from my briefcase and pressed it against the glass for her to see.
"What is that?" Vivian frowned, trying to read the fine print.
"This is the final indictment filed by the State Attorney General," I explained calmly. "Charges: First-degree conspiracy to commit murder, corporate espionage, wire fraud, and grand larceny. They found the offshore accounts from ten years ago, Vivian. They found the payments from Apex Group."
Vivian’s face drained of what little color it had left. She stumbled back slightly in her chair, the telephone receiver shaking in her hand. "N-No... that was ten years ago... you can't prove..."
"We have the text messages from four years ago," I interrupted sharply. "The ones where you told Daniel to target me at the art gallery. The ones where you admitted to helping murder my mother, Eleanor Mercer."
Vivian fell silent. The arrogant, cruel mother-in-law who had dumped filthy water over my bleeding feet was entirely gone. In her place sat a pathetic, caught monster.
"You thought you were clever," I continued, leaning closer to the glass. "You thought you could kill my mother, steal her legacy, and then trick her daughter into serving you dinner in your kitchen. You called me charity. You called me a helpless orphan."
"Emma... please..." Vivian squeaked, tears of terror finally overflowing from her eyes. "I was desperate back then! My husband left me with millions in debt! Apex threatened my life! I had no choice!"
"My mother had no choice when her car went over the cliff!" I snapped, my voice ringing like steel against the glass. "I had no choice when you threw dirty water on my open wounds three days after giving birth! My baby girl had no choice when you let her shiver in a cold room while you laughed at my pain!"
Vivian squeezed her eyes shut, sobbing hysterically. "Please... talk to your father! Ask him for mercy! I'll plead guilty! Just don't let me die in prison!"
"Mercy?" I laughed softly—a dark, ironic sound. "You told me to crawl, Vivian. Now you can spend the rest of your life learning how."
I set the telephone receiver back on its hook, stood up, and pulled on my gloves. I didn't look back as Vivian slammed her fists against the glass, screaming my name until the guards dragged her away down the dim hallway.
When I stepped out of the prison building into the bright morning sunlight, I took a deep, clear breath. For the first time in four years, the crushing weight in my chest felt lighter.
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The monsters who had haunted my past were finally behind bars. But as I returned to the car, Arthur Vance handed me a tablet with a fresh security alert.
"Miss Mercer," Arthur warned softly. "We have a problem. Daniel Hale was released on high-dollar emergency bail two hours ago—funded by an unknown private third party."
