Chapter 18 - A Visitor in the Holding Cell
The regional federal detention center in Alexandria, Virginia, was a cold, brutalist concrete structure that smelled of industrial disinfectant and stale air.
Inside the small visitor room separated by thick, shatterproof reinforced glass, Margaret Ellison sat in an orange jumpsuit.
Her hair, usually styled in immaculate suburban waves, was flat and matted.
Her face was devoid of makeup, showing every deep wrinkle and line of age and stress.
The heavy steel door on the opposite side of the glass clicked open.
Claire walked in, wearing her crisp Navy dress whites.
She sat down on the metal stool on her side of the partition and picked up the black plastic intercom phone.
Margaret frantically grabbed her receiver, slamming it against her ear.
"Claire!" Margaret cried out, her voice buzzing through the electronic speaker.
"You came! Thank God you came!"
"You have to tell them to let me out, Claire!"
"The food here is toxic! They won't let me have my skin cream! The women in my cell block are criminals!"
Claire listened to the hysterical whining without any expression on her face.
"You are a federal inmate now, Margaret," Claire said calmly through the receiver.
"You are awaiting trial for national security offenses."
"There is no high-society bail for espionage."
"No! No! I didn't mean to hurt the country!" Margaret wept, clutching the phone with trembling, pale hands.
"I was just trying to pay off Thomas's debts!"
"He left me nothing, Claire! He spent all our money on bad investments and secret properties!"
"He humiliated me before he died, and I couldn't let everyone in Norfolk know we were broke!"
"So you chose to humiliate me instead," Claire said softly.
"For seven years, you tried to make me feel small so you could pretend your family was superior."
"You called me a secretary."
"You made me sit in the background."
"And in the end, the secretary was the only thing keeping your world from collapsing."
Margaret pressed her forehead against the cold glass, tears falling onto her orange jumpsuit.
"Owen won't even come see me," Margaret whispered, her voice cracking with deep, agonizing sorrow.
"I called him ten times today."
"He told the prison warden he didn't have a mother anymore."
"He’s right, Margaret," Claire said, her voice completely calm and devoid of anger.
"You didn't want a son."
"You wanted a trophy to display at your garden parties."
"And now you have nothing."
Claire slowly began to stand up from the stool.
"Wait! Don't leave me!" Margaret screamed through the phone, banging her fists against the thick glass.
"Claire! Please! What's going to happen to me?!"
Claire paused, holding the receiver close to her lips one last time.
"You are going to face justice, Margaret," Claire said quietly.
"And for the first time in your life, you won't be able to talk your way out of it."
Claire hung up the black phone, placing it neatly back into its cradle.
May you like
She turned her back on the screaming woman behind the glass and walked out of the visitor room, the heavy steel door slamming shut behind her with a definitive, booming thud.
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