Chapter 13 - The Parole Hearing
Z
The hearing room at the Sterling Correctional Facility was cold, sterile, and lit by buzzing fluorescent bulbs. The three-member Parole Board sat elevated at a long wooden bench, reviewing thick stacks of files.
Victoria Vance sat at a small table near the front. She was dressed in a plain denim prison shirt. Her hair was thin and streaked with white, and she sat hunched in a wheelchair, holding a folded handkerchief, weeping silently into her lap.
Her high-powered attorney, Julian Sterling—retained through a trust fund Victoria had secretly hidden away years ago—stood beside her, adopting a deeply mournful expression.
"Members of the board," Sterling began, bowing his head slightly. "My client is a seventy-one-year-old grandmother suffering from severe coronary artery disease and early cognitive decline. The woman sitting before you today is not the angry, headstrong individual involved in the tragic family dispute three years ago. She is frail, repentant, and poses absolutely zero danger to the community. Keeping her incarcerated is an act of unnecessary cruelty."
The lead board member, a sharp-eyed woman named Commissioner Vance-Reid, leaned over her microphone. "The state medical report indicates her conditions are manageable within the prison infirmary system, Mr. Sterling. Furthermore, the nature of her offense was exceptionally cruel."
"It was a tragic loss of emotional control during a heated domestic conflict!" Sterling argued smoothly. "A single lapse in judgment—"
"A single lapse in judgment?" a clear, resonant voice interrupted from the gallery.
Every head in the room turned.
Maya stood up from the back row. She wore an elegant navy suit, holding a dark leather folder under her arm. Beside her sat Veronica, while Ethan sat three rows behind them, completely still, wearing a dark suit.
Victoria’s weeping stopped instantly. Through her rheumy eyes, her gaze locked onto Maya, and for a fraction of a second, the frail, pathetic facade vanished, replaced by the unmistakable glint of pure, sharp malice.
"State your name for the record," Commissioner Vance-Reid requested.
"Maya Lin. I am the victim," Maya declared, walking down the center aisle to the podium set up for public testimony.
Sterling stepped forward defensively. "Your Honor, my client’s medical release is a legal matter between the state and her physicians. The victim's presence here is merely an attempt to reopen old wounds!"
"The victim has an absolute constitutional right to be heard, Mr. Sterling. Sit down," the Commissioner ordered sharply.
Maya placed her hands on the wooden podium. She didn't look at Sterling, nor did she look at the board members. She looked directly into Victoria’s eyes.
"Three years ago, Victoria Vance sat in a air-conditioned resort in Santa Fe, eating breakfast, while my son and I were fighting for oxygen in an emergency room," Maya began, her voice echoing off the concrete walls with absolute authority. "She didn't suffer a lapse in judgment. She executed a deliberate, calculated act of punishment."
Maya opened her leather folder and pulled out a framed piece of paper encased in archival glass.
"This is the note Victoria taped beside the padlock she clicked shut on a nine-month pregnant woman," Maya said, holding it high for the board to see.
The bold, thick black marker was still vividly clear: LET’S SEE IF THIS TEACHES YOU TO RESPECT YOUR FAMILY.
"Victoria wants you to believe that aging has made her gentle," Maya continued, her tone dropping to a razor-sharp whisper. "She wants you to believe that a wheelchair and grey hair erase the fact that she was fully prepared to let her own unborn grandson suffocate to death to prove a point about her authority."
Victoria snapped. The fragile, pathetic old woman routine collapsed like a house of cards. She slammed her hands onto the armrests of her wheelchair, leaning forward, her face twisting into a hideous sneer.
"You ungrateful little bitch!" Victoria shrieked, her voice echoing violently across the sterile room. "You destroyed my life! You took my son! You took my home! You belonged in that room!"
Sterling gasped, lunging to grab his client's arm. "Victoria! Shut up! Shut up right now!"
"Let go of me!" Victoria screamed, swatting her lawyer away with surprising physical strength, her eyes bulging. "She set me up! She's a liar! I am the head of the Vance family! You can't keep me in here!"
The three parole board members sat back, watching the horrific spectacle in absolute, stunned silence.
Ethan slowly stood up from his seat in the gallery. He walked forward until he was standing beside Maya at the podium. He didn't look at Maya; he looked directly at the woman who had birthed him.
"She hasn't changed, Commissioners," Ethan said, his voice deep and completely devoid of emotion. "I am her son, Ethan Vance. And I am testifying today to urge this board to deny her parole. She is a danger to my ex-wife, she is a danger to my child, and if she is released, she will spend the rest of her life trying to finish the destruction she started."
Victoria stared at Ethan, her mouth agape, her chest heaving as if she had just been stabbed. "Ethan... baby... no..."
"I am not your baby, Victoria," Ethan said coldly. "I am the father of the child you tried to kill."
Commissioner Vance-Reid didn't even confer with her colleagues. She immediately picked up her pen, signed a document on her desk, and looked up with absolute disgust.
"Parole request is unanimously Denied," the Commissioner stated firmly. "The inmate will serve the remainder of her mandatory term. She will not be eligible for review for another five years. Hearing adjourned."
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As the Commissioner slammed her gavel down, two large female prison guards stepped up, grabbed Victoria’s wheelchair, and spun it around, wheeling her out through the heavy steel rear doors.
Victoria screamed and clawed at the air, her shrill cries fading down the concrete corridor until the door slammed shut, leaving absolute silence in its wake.
