Chapter 10 - THE FINAL CHAPTER
Five years later.
I walked into the visitor’s center of the Federal Correctional Institution for Women. I sat at a metal table, separated by thick, bulletproof glass.
A guard brought my mother out. She was unrecognizable. Her once-perfect hair was entirely gray. Her skin was dull, her posture hunched. She wore a faded khaki uniform.
When she saw me, her eyes filled with a desperate, pathetic hope. She picked up the heavy black receiver on the wall.
“Sarah,” she wept. “You came. Oh, thank God, you came. Are you going to help me appeal? Please, I’m dying in here.”
I picked up my receiver. I looked at her, feeling absolutely nothing. No anger. No sadness. Just profound indifference.
“I didn't come here to help you, Evelyn,” I said, my voice perfectly steady.
Her face dropped. “Then why are you here?”
I placed a photograph against the glass. It was a picture of Maya, now ten years old, smiling brilliantly holding a first-place science fair trophy. Behind her in the photo was our beautiful home, bathed in warm sunlight.
“I came here to show you exactly what you threw away,” I said. “We survived the cold. We got the money. We have a beautiful, perfect life. And you will die in a concrete box, completely forgotten.”
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My mother stared at the photo, a silent wail tearing from her throat as she pressed her hands against the glass.
I didn't stay to watch her cry. I hung up the phone, turned my back, and walked out into the bright, beautiful sunshine, leaving her in the dark forever.
