Chapter 9 - Behind Iron Bars and Empty Pockets
Three days later, I arrived at the county detention facility.
I was escorted through two security checkpoints by the assistant warden himself, who led me down a sterile, concrete corridor to the private attorney-client conference room.
"You have twenty minutes, Ms. Sterling," the warden said respectfully, opening the heavy steel door. "There are guards right outside the viewing glass."
"Thank you, Warden. That will be plenty."
I stepped inside.
Arthur Vance sat at the bolted metal table.
He was unrecognizable.
The expensive Italian suits were gone, replaced by a faded orange prison jumpsuit. His styled hair was greasy and unkempt. His eyes were sunken, surrounded by dark, hollow rings of sleeplessness and terror. When he looked up and saw me, his jaw trembled violently.
"Diana," he rasped, his voice barely audible.
I pulled out the metal chair opposite him and sat down. I laid a single manila folder on the table between us.
"You look well, Arthur," I said evenly.
"Please," Arthur choked out, leaning across the table as far as the center divider would allow. "Please, Diana. You have to get me out of here. The judge set bail at two million dollars cash. Two million! My parents don't have it. Nobody will answer their calls. They’re staying at some filthy motel near the highway!"
"I know," I said. "I bought the note on the motel yesterday. Just to ensure they pay their rent on time."
Arthur stared at me in horror. "You... you bought the motel?"
"I am a thorough businesswoman, Arthur," I replied. "I don't leave loose ends."
"Diana, I’m begging you!" Arthur broke down, sobbing uncontrollably, pressing his forehead against the cold metal table. "I’ll do whatever you want! I’ll sign whatever you put in front of me! I’ll plead guilty to a misdemeanor! Just get me out of this cage! The men in here... they know who I was. They know what I did. They treat me like scum!"
"You *are* scum, Arthur," I said, my voice cutting through his tears like broken glass. "You believed you were a lion because your grandfather built an empire you didn't have the brains to run. But without your family’s stolen money, you are nothing more than a violent, petty weakling."
I slid the manila folder across the table.
He raised his head, sniffling, his hands shaking as he opened it.
Inside was a comprehensive legal settlement.
"What is this?" he whispered.
"It is your complete, unconditional surrender," I explained. "You will plead guilty to felony domestic assault and battery. You will surrender every claim to any residual shares, trusts, or intellectual property associated with the former Vance Hospitality. You will agree to a permanent, lifetime restraining order. And in return, my legal team will decline to seek the maximum ten-year enhancement on the corporate wire-fraud charges."
Arthur’s eyes darted across the pages. "If I sign this... I go to state prison for three years."
"If you don't sign it," I leaned closer, my voice turning to pure ice, "my corporate attorneys will ensure the federal prosecutors hit you with sixteen counts of aggravated fraud, bank conspiracy, and money laundering. You will serve twenty-five years in a federal penitentiary in Indiana, and you will emerge as an old, penniless felon with nowhere to go."
Arthur looked at the document, then looked at me.
He searched my eyes for mercy. He searched for the gentle, compliant woman he thought he had brought home to his family’s lakeside estate.
He found nothing.
Only the cold, unyielding iron of Diana Sterling.
With trembling fingers, Arthur picked up the cheap plastic pen the guards had left on the table.
He signed his name on the final line.
I picked up the folder, closed it, and stood up.
"Goodbye, Arthur," I said, knocking once on the steel door for the guard to unlock it.
"Diana!" Arthur cried out as the door swung open. "Did you ever... did you ever love me at all?"
I paused at the threshold, looking back over my shoulder for the very last time.
"I loved the man I thought had the courage to be decent," I said softly. "Too bad he never existed."
May you like
The steel door slammed shut between us, locking with a final, echoing thud.
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