I did not scream. I did not hurl insults, smash crystal, or offer Evelyn Bennett the spectacle she so desperately craved.

A week before Richard was transported to the federal correctional complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, I accepted his request for a final prison visit.

I sat behind the thick glass partition in the visitor's room.

Richard was led in by two guards. His head was shaved, his cheeks were hollow, and his spirit was completely obliterated. He sat down slowly, picking up the black phone receiver.

I picked up mine.

"Laura," Richard whispered, his voice trembling. "Thank you for coming."

"I'm here for closure, Richard. Not for you," I replied.

"I found out... about my biological father," he said, wiping a tear from his red eyes. "My whole life was a lie. My mother raised me to be an arrogant, entitled monster. I thought I was better than everyone... I thought I was better than you."

"You chose to be a monster, Richard," I said coldly. "Evelyn gave you the tools, but you built the cage yourself."

"I know," he wept, pressing his forehead against the cold glass. "I know. Every night in my cell, all I see is Lily's face when my mother took her food away... and all I hear is my own voice saying, 'Don't start anything.' I ruined my own family. I traded gold for garbage."

"Sophie and Lily are doing wonderfully," I said, showing him a picture pressed against the glass.

In the photograph, Sophie was holding a regional science fair trophy, and Lily was smiling brightly on a horse at our estate stables. They looked radiant, healthy, and completely loved.

"They don't ask about you anymore, Richard," I added softly. "To them, their father died the day we left that party."

Richard closed his eyes, weeping uncontrollably, his shoulders shaking as the reality of his eternal loss settled into his soul.