Chapter 8 - A Visit to Prison
A year after the sentencing, I received a formal request from the Green Haven Correctional Facility.
Richard Vance had requested a visitor.
My attorney advised me against going. "You don't owe him a single second of your life, Veronica," Eleanor said. "Let him rot."
"I know I don't owe him," I replied. "But I want to see him one last time. I want him to look at me while he is inside his cage, so he knows that he will never exist in my world again."
The next day, I walked into the visitor center of the maximum-security prison. The air smelled of industrial floor cleaner and stale sweat. Heavy steel doors slammed behind me with thunderous booms.
I sat on one side of the thick glass wall. A moment later, a guard escorted Richard in.
He was wearing an oversized orange jumpsuit. His wrists were cuffed to a chain around his waist. The slick, handsome high-society architect was completely gone. In his place was a broken, frail inmate with dull eyes and stooped shoulders.
He picked up the phone. I picked up mine.
"You actually came," Richard said, his voice raspy through the small speaker.
"I came because this is the last time anyone from the outside world will ever speak your name to your face, Richard," I said calmly.
He let out a bitter, hollow laugh. "You think you won, don't you? You took my company, you took my house, you put my mother in a cell next to murderers."
"You did all of that to yourself," I corrected softly. "You built your life on murder, greed, and arrogance. I simply allowed the weight of your own crimes to crush you."
Richard slammed his cuffed hands against the ledge, his eyes suddenly burning with hatred. "Why didn't you just leave me five years ago?! If you knew about Julia, why didn't you just pack your bags and run away?!"
I looked at him calmly, my heart rate entirely steady.
"Because if I had run away, you would have replaced me with another woman. You would have killed my father anyway, taken his fortune, and buried another victim behind a wall," I said. "Some monsters can't just be escaped, Richard. They have to be eliminated."
He stared at me, his mouth opening slightly, but no words came out.
May you like
"Goodbye, Richard," I said softly.
I hung up the phone, stood up, and turned my back on him. As I walked toward the exit doors, I heard him screaming my name behind the glass, pounding his fists frantically, but I didn't look back once.
