Chapter 4 - The Cell Visit(Length: ~1800 words)
Two days later.
The Suffolk County Detention Center smelled of industrial bleach, cold iron, and despair.
I walked down the long, fluorescent-lit hallway, accompanied by two armed guards. I wore a tailored navy-blue suit, my hair styled impeccably, holding a small leather briefcase.
Inside Visitation Room B, Jason sat behind a thick plexiglass partition.
The transformation was astonishing. The polished, arrogant billionaire who had strutted into the courtroom forty-eight hours ago was completely gone. Jason wore a dark orange jumpsuit. His hair was greasy and unwashed, his stubble messy, and his eyes bloodshot with sleep-deprived panic.
When he saw me walk in, he jumped out of his metal chair, slamming his hands against the glass.
"Iris!" he yelled through the small metal speaker grill. "Iris, thank God! You have to help me! You have to tell the feds this was all a huge misunderstanding!"
I sat down calmly in the chair opposite him, placing my briefcase on the counter. I didn't say a word. I simply looked at him.
"Iris, please!" Jason whimpered, tears filling his eyes. "The lawyers abandoned me! Arthur dropped my case because my retainer check bounced! Marcus Thorne won't take my calls! And Madison... that lying snake stole fifty thousand dollars from my private safe before the feds seized the house!"
"Madison didn't steal it, Jason," I said smoothly, my voice cold and composed. "She handed that money over to the federal prosecutor as evidence of your undisclosed cash reserves."
Jason banged his forehead against the plexiglass. "You did this to me... you set me up!"
"You set yourself up the day you decided to treat people like disposable toys," I reminded him flatly. "You stole my life's work. You kept me hidden away like a dirty secret. You spent my money on cheap women and luxury cars while telling me I was worthless."
"I was trying to protect you!" Jason lied frantically, his hands shaking against the counter. "You were traumatized after the explosion! You weren't mentally stable enough to handle the business world! I took the pressure off you!"
"You took the money off me," I corrected sharply. "And you used it to buy yourself a life you never earned."
I reached into my briefcase and pulled out a single sheet of paper, sliding it under the small slot at the bottom of the partition.
"What is this?" Jason asked, staring at the document.
"It's the final divorce settlement and asset surrender," I explained. "You will relinquish all claims to the mansion, the sports cars, the offshore accounts, and every remaining share of Mitchell Medical Technologies. In exchange, I will instruct my legal team not to pursue civil damages for personal injury regarding the laboratory fire."
Jason looked at the paper, then looked up at me with wild, bloodshot eyes. "If I sign this, I have nothing left! I’ll be completely bankrupt!"
"If you don't sign it," I leaned in close to the glass, "my attorneys will file a civil lawsuit for physical assault, reckless endangerment, and illegal confinement that will guarantee you get an additional twenty years added to your federal fraud sentence."
Jason’s lower lip trembled. He looked around the cold, gray visitation room, realizing with absolute terror that he had no cards left to play. The man who had boasted that I would be begging on the streets was now standing at the edge of an absolute abyss.
"You ruined me, Iris," Jason whispered, tears streaming down his face, leaving tracks in the grime on his cheeks. "You destroyed my life."
"No, Jason," I said softly, standing up from my chair and picking up my briefcase. "I just stopped letting you destroy mine."
He grabbed the pen attached to the clipboard with a trembling hand and signed his name at the bottom of the page.
I picked up the signed document, checked the signature, and tapped the glass twice to signal the guard.
"Enjoy your stay, Jason," I said, turning my back on him.
May you like
"Iris! Wait! Don't leave me here!" Jason screamed, beating his fists against the plexiglass as the heavy iron door slid open. "Iris! Please! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"
I walked out down the corridor, his desperate screams fading into the heavy iron doors behind me. I didn't look back once.
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