Chapter 13 - Shadows from the Cell
Z
Six months after Evelyn’s surprise appearance, a certified letter arrived in my mailbox from the State Department of Corrections.
I sat at Arthur’s old desk in the study, cutting open the official seal with a brass letter opener. Inside was a formal notice regarding Jessica Cole’s upcoming parole eligibility hearing. Because of good behavior and participation in institutional rehabilitation programs, she had served three years of her five-year sentence and was being considered for early conditional release.
Attached to the state documents was a hand-written letter from Jessica.
Mom,
If you are reading this, the parole board has agreed to review my case. I know I have no right to ask you for anything. Every single day in this cell, I look at the concrete walls and remember the look on your face when you turned your back on me at the courthouse. I deserved every second of this sentence.
Vincent tried to contact me from the maximum-security facility last month through his attorney. He wanted me to file a joint appeal, claiming we were both framed by Apex Capital. I tore the papers up and threw them in the trash. I am done with him. I have officially filed for divorce.
I am not writing this to ask you to let me come home. I know that door is closed forever, and I respect that. I am writing to ask if you would consider attending my parole hearing—not to support me, but just so I can look you in the eyes as a sober, humbled woman and say 'I am sorry' without a glass wall between us.
Your daughter,
Jessica
I set the letter down on the blotter. My hand was steady, but my chest felt tight.
Over the past three years, I had rebuilt my life without her. I had filled my days with charitable work, gardening, and quiet evenings with true friends like Maria. The pain of her betrayal had dulled from an open, bleeding wound into a faded, silver scar.
That evening, I called Marcus Vance.
"She’s asking for parole, Marcus," I said over the phone.
"I received the notice as well, Eleanor," Marcus replied solemnly. "As the victim, you have the right to submit an opposition statement. If you object, the board will almost certainly deny her parole and force her to serve the full five years."
"And if I don't object?"
"Then she will likely be released on supervised probation within thirty days. She will be required to maintain employment, attend counseling, and stay at least five hundred yards away from you and your property at all times."
I looked out the window toward the garden. The sun was setting, casting golden hues over the orchards Arthur had tended with his own hands. Arthur had been a stern man, but he was always fair. He believed in accountability, but he also believed that when a debt was paid to society, a person had to be allowed to walk their own path.
"I won't oppose her parole, Marcus," I said quietly.
May you like
There was a brief silence on the line before Marcus spoke. "Are you sure, Eleanor?"
"She paid three years of her life in a cage," I said. "The law has extracted its pound of flesh. But tell the parole officer that the restraining order stays permanent. She gets her freedom, but she does not get her mother back."
