Chapter 5 - The Interrogation Room
By afternoon, I felt strong enough to leave the hospital suite for a brief excursion, accompanied by Julian and two private security specialists.
Our destination was the county detention center.
We didn't go to see Jocelyn. We went to see Gregory.
The holding room was a stark, windowless box with a stainless-steel table bolted to the floor. The overhead fluorescent light hummed with a headache-inducing frequency. When the heavy steel door creaked open, Gregory stumbled in, flanked by a bored guard.
He looked unrecognizable. The crisp, expensive polo shirts were gone, replaced by a coarse, orange inmate jumpsuit that hung loosely off his frame. His hair was unwashed and matted, and dark, hollow circles bruised the skin beneath his bloodshot eyes.
When he saw me sitting across the table—wearing a sharp white tailored suit, looking healthy, vibrant, and completely untouchable—his knees buckled.
“Elena...” he breathed, his voice cracking into a pathetic sob as he lunged forward, slamming his cuffed wrists against the metal table. “Elena, thank God! Please, you have to get me out of here! Your brother is insane—he’s freezing all our assets, they’re talking about twenty years in federal prison, Elena, please! We’re husband and wife! Remember our vows?”
I didn't move. I slowly folded my hands on the table, looking at him the way a scientist might examine an interesting, mildly repulsive specimen under a microscope.
“Our vows, Gregory?” I asked, my voice carrying a quiet, lethal resonance that made him flinch. “Let me refresh your memory. Two weeks after I had major cancer surgery—when my chest was literally held together by stitches and raw tissue—your mother flushed my pain medication down the toilet.”
Gregory swallowed hard, his throat bobbing frantically. “I... I was stressed, El—Mom said—”
“And you,” I interrupted, raising my voice just enough to cut him off. “You stepped over me while I was crying on the bathroom floor. You shoved my surgical drains aside. You told me to go outside in a hundred-degree heat and mow the lawn because you were tired of my complaining.”
Tears streamed down Gregory’s filthy cheeks as he shook his head violently. “I didn't know! I didn't think it was that serious! Please, Elena, drop the charges! Tell your brother to call off his lawyers! I’ll do anything—I’ll sign the divorce papers, I’ll give you the house, I’ll give you everything!”
“You already gave me everything, Gregory,” I said with a faint, chilling smile. “You taught me that mercy is wasted on cowards, and that loyalty to a monster is suicide.”
I stood up smoothly, smoothing the lapels of my white jacket. Julian stood beside me, his hand resting reassuringly on my shoulder.
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“Wait! Elena, don't leave me here! ELENA!” Gregory screamed, lunging across the table before the guard slammed him back down into his chair with a heavy thud.
We walked out of the room without looking back, leaving him to the very fate he and his mother had so carefully engineered for me.
