Chapter 9 - The Retribution
Z
The visitor's room at the Montana State Maximum Security Facility was cold, sterile, and smelled of heavy industrial disinfectant. Thick, bulletproof glass separated the stainless-steel counters, and harsh fluorescent lighting exposed every crease and flaw in the gray concrete walls.
I sat on the swivel stool, wearing a simple black sweater and jeans, my hands resting calmly on the metal ledge.
The heavy steel door on the opposite side of the glass buzzed and clicked open.
A guard shoved Adrian Vale into the room.
He was wearing an oversized orange prison jumpsuit, his wrists chained to a heavy leather belly belt. He looked broken. The polished, charismatic contractor who used to smile for local news cameras was gone. His hair was shaved short, his face was gaunt and hollow, and dark, purple bruises ringed his eyes from his days in the county holding cell.
When he saw me sitting across the glass, he stopped dead in his tracks. A mixture of profound shock, pathetic fear, and lingering hatred flashed across his pale face.
"Sit down, inmate," the guard ordered, pushing Adrian onto the stool.
Adrian slowly sat down, his pick-up receiver shaking violently as he lifted it to his ear with his chained hands.
I picked up my receiver and waited.
"What do you want, Elena?" Adrian asked, his voice thin, crackling through the cheap speaker. "Came to gloat? Came to watch me rot in a cage?"
"I came to deliver a message, Adrian," I said, my voice smooth, calm, and utterly devoid of anger.
"I heard about Vance," Adrian muttered, looking down at his chained wrists. "I heard he’s going to Federal Supermax. His lawyers offered a deal, but the prosecutors aren't taking it. He’s going away for life. And so am I."
"You're facing thirty years without parole, Adrian," I corrected him precisely. "Your assets have been completely seized by the federal government under RICO forfeiture laws. The house in Helena, the trucks, the joint savings accounts, the land in the Bitterroot—everything has been confiscated."
Adrian’s mouth twitched with bitter fury. "You took everything from me. My life, my money, my freedom..."
"You gave them away the moment you decided to put a padlock on that cabin door, Adrian," I replied. "You thought you were buying a future with Bianca. You didn't realize you were just buying a ticket to a federal prison."
Adrian slammed his chained fists against the stainless-steel counter, forcing the guard near the door to rest his hand on his baton.
"Why didn't you just die?!" Adrian screamed through the glass, tears of rage springing to his eyes. "It was so simple! You freeze in the woods, the insurance pays out, everyone feels sorry for the grieving husband, and it’s over! Why couldn't you just let it go?!"
I leaned forward, my face inches from the thick glass, looking deep into his hollow, pathetic eyes.
"Because you made one fundamental mistake, Adrian," I whispered clearly into the receiver. "You thought you knew who I was. You thought I was just a quiet wife who cooked your dinner and listened to your stories about construction contracts."
I took a slow, deep breath.
"You forgot that before I met you, I spent five years in the mountains teaching men how to survive when everything they loved was stripped away. You thought cold weather was an enemy. To me, it was just home."
Adrian stared at me, his breath hitching, realization finally sinking into his twisted mind that he had never truly known the woman he had married.
"Your mother sold her house to pay for your initial legal defense," I added quietly. "She called me yesterday, crying. She apologized for what you became."
"Leave my mother out of this!" Adrian snarled.
"I gave her fifty thousand dollars from my personal army pension so she wouldn't end up on the street, Adrian," I said. "Because unlike you, I don't destroy innocent people when I’m hurt."
Adrian went dead silent. The anger seemed to drain out of him all at once, leaving behind only a hollow, pathetic husk of a man who realized that even in his total defeat, his victim was fundamentally superior to him in every conceivable way.
"I’m filing the final divorce papers today, Adrian," I said, standing up from the stool. "When you walk out of this prison in thirty years, you won't have a single dollar, a single piece of land, or a single person waiting for you at the gate. You will be completely, utterly alone."
I hung up the phone receiver and turned my back on him.
May you like
"Elena! Wait!" Adrian screamed behind the glass, his voice muted and small. "Elena! Look at me! ELENA!"
I didn't turn around. I walked out through the heavy steel door into the bright, warm sunshine of the afternoon, leaving Adrian Vale trapped in his dark, icy cage forever.
