Chapter 33 - A Visit to the Past
Despite the overwhelming victory, there was one final, necessary string I needed to sever before I could truly embrace the peace I had fought so hard to secure.
I requested a specialized, highly secure visitation at the federal penitentiary where Derek was serving his eleven-year sentence. I didn't go to gloat. I went to ensure that the ghost of my past understood that he no longer held any power over my future.
I sat in the sterile, gray visitor’s room, separated by a thick panel of smudged, bulletproof acrylic glass.
The heavy steel door buzzed loudly, and Derek was escorted into the room. He looked terrible. The confident, muscular man who had brutally thrown me to the floor three years ago was entirely gone. He was gaunt, his hair thinning, his posture hunched with the miserable, crushing reality of prison life.
He sat down on the metal stool, picking up the heavy black receiver. He looked at me, a pathetic mixture of hatred and desperate longing in his hollow eyes.
"Lena," Derek rasped, his voice weak and unused. "Why are you here? Did you come to tell me about Julian? I heard it on the prison block. You took down the boss."
"I didn't come to talk about Julian," I replied, my voice completely flat, devoid of any anger or sorrow. "I came to look at you, Derek."
He frowned, his brow furrowing in confusion. "Look at me?"
"Yes," I said smoothly, staring directly into the eyes that used to paralyze me with terror. "I needed to see you in this cage. I needed to see that you are nothing but a small, pathetic, broken man. You used to be the monster under my bed. Now, you are just an inmate with a number."
Derek’s jaw clenched, his fragile ego shattering against the bulletproof glass. "You ruined my life! I built that company!"
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"No, Derek," I said, placing the receiver gently back onto the cradle, completely cutting off his pathetic rant. "You destroyed your own life. I just provided the evidence."
I stood up, turned my back on his screaming, muted form behind the glass, and walked out of the prison without ever looking back.
