Chapter 23 - The Glass Wall
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The visiting room of the prison medical ward smelled of antiseptic and old paper.
Margaret sat behind a thick plexiglass window, wearing a faded orange jumpsuit, an oxygen tube hooked into her nose. Her once-flawless hair was thin and white, her skin pale and papery under the harsh fluorescent lights.
She looked small. For the first time in my life, the woman who had terrorized my youth looked entirely mortal.
I sat down on the stool across from her, picking up the heavy black telephone receiver.
She picked up hers with trembling hands, her chest heaving with every shallow breath.
"Marcus..." she rasped, her voice thin as parchment. "You came."
"I came," I said quietly.
"Look at me," she whispered, tears leaking from her sunken eyes. "Look what they've done to me in this terrible place. I don't belong here, Marcus."
I looked at her, but the old fear and resentment inside me didn't flare up. There was only a quiet, solemn emptiness.
"You belonged here the moment you let Victor put poison in my father's medicine, Mother," I said calmly.
Margaret’s face twitched, a momentary flash of her old arrogance surfacing before fading back into weakness.
"I did it for us!" she lied, her hand smudging against the glass. "Victor would have killed you too! I saved your life!"
"No," I corrected softly. "You saved your lifestyle. You traded Dad's life for silk dresses and Paradise Valley parties."
Margaret sobbed, pressing her forehead against the glass. "Are you going to let me die alone in here?"
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"You aren't alone," I said, standing up from the stool. "You have your choices with you. Goodbye, Mother."
I hung up the receiver and walked out of the room without looking back, leaving the shadows of my past locked behind steel doors.
