Chapter 8 - Blood and Contracts
Z
The private visitation room at the county detention facility was cold, lit by harsh fluorescent lights that buzzed softly overhead.
Joseph sat on one side of a thick plexiglass partition, wearing a bright orange jumpsuit. The sleek, tailored suits, the heavy designer watch, and the manicured hair were gone. He looked smaller, frail, and utterly broken.
On the other side of the glass sat Josephine.
She wore a simple black turtleneck and a long coat. She sat with her hands folded neatly in her lap, looking at the man she had lived with for four years with a calm, quiet distance.
Joseph picked up the heavy plastic telephone receiver on his side. Josephine picked up hers.
"Josephine," Joseph whispered, his voice cracking through the small speaker. "Thank you for coming. Please... you have to help me. The bail is set at five million dollars. My father's assets are frozen. My mother is hysterical. Your father... your father has the influence to get the DA to lower the charges. If he drops the corporate lawsuit, I can enter a plea deal!"
Josephine looked at him through the glass. Her eyes were clean, clear, and devoid of hatred. But they were also entirely devoid of warmth.
"My father didn't put you in that chair, Joseph," she said softly. "You put yourself there."
"I was manipulated!" Joseph cried out, pressing his free hand against the glass. "Mitchell set my father up! I was just trying to protect my family's firm! I made mistakes, yes, but I loved you, Josephine! Everything I did, I did because I wanted to be worthy of you! I wanted to give you the life you deserved!"
"The life I deserved?" Josephine let out a sad, soft breath. "Joseph, I was happy when we lived in that small two-bedroom apartment during your first year of business school. I was happy when we ate five-dollar pizza on the floor because we couldn't afford a dining table yet. I loved you. I didn't care about the high-rise house, the galas, or the country club memberships."
"We can have that back!" Joseph pleaded, tears streaming down his face. "When this is over... we can start over! Far away from here! In another state!"
"There is no 'us' anymore, Joseph," Josephine said firmly. "I served the final divorce papers to your legal representative this morning."
Joseph flinched as if she had struck him across the face. "Josephine... please..."
"And my father isn't going to drop the lawsuit," she continued quietly. "Not out of vengeance, but out of justice. You were willing to let a building collapse on top of innocent people for money, Joseph. That isn't a 'mistake'. That is a failure of humanity."
She began to set the telephone receiver down.
"Josephine! Wait!" Joseph yelled, banging his hand against the plexiglass. "What about your father? Is he just going to run the company until he dies? He's an old man! He belongs in the past!"
Josephine paused, holding the receiver inches from her ear. She looked straight into his desperate, hollow eyes.
"My father isn't an old ghost, Joseph," she said proudly. "He’s a builder. And today, I officially accepted the board's appointment to step in as Vice President of Operations at Harrington. I'm going to learn how to build from him—the right way."
May you like
She placed the receiver back onto its hook.
Joseph screamed something behind the thick glass, his fists beating against the barrier, but no sound passed through. Josephine stood up, turned her back on him, and walked out of the room into the bright, clean daylight.
