Chapter 10 - The Unraveling of the Snake
Two weeks after Adrian's sentencing, I visited the federal women's correctional facility on the outer edge of the state.
I wasn't required to go. I didn't need to see her. But I wanted to close the final loop of the past.
I sat behind a thick panel of bulletproof glass in the visiting room.
A few moments later, the heavy door opened, and Vanessa was escorted inside by a female guard.
She looked broken. Her manicured nails were long gone, her hair was pulled back in a messy braid, and she wore a faded tan federal prison uniform.
She picked up the telephone receiver on her side of the glass, her hand shaking. I picked up mine.
"Why are you here, Claire?" Vanessa asked, her voice raspy, devoid of the sweet, silver-tongued charm she had once used to control Adrian. "Came to gloat? Came to see the snake in a cage?"
"No, Vanessa," I said quietly through the receiver. "I came to bring you a message."
"A message from who?" she sneered weakly.
"From the federal prosecutor's office," I replied. "Your plea bargain for the Chicago extortion case was officially rejected this morning. They are adding another twelve years to your federal sentence. You won't be eligible for release until you are fifty-four years old."
Vanessa’s hand tightened around the receiver until her knuckles turned white. Tears began to stream down her pale, un-rouged cheeks.
"Why did you do it, Vanessa?" I asked genuinely, looking at her through the glass. "You were brilliant. You had the skills to build a real, legitimate career. Why did you choose to steal, frame, and destroy?"
Vanessa let out a bitter, weeping laugh, resting her forehead against the cool glass.
"Because it was easy," she whispered. "Men like Adrian are so easy, Claire. They are so consumed by their own pride that all you have to do is whisper what they want to hear, and they'll give you everything. I thought you were just a stupid, quiet girl standing in my way."
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"I was never in your way, Vanessa," I said softly. "You were in your own way."
I gently hung up the receiver, stood up from the stool, and stepped back into the hallway, leaving Vanessa weeping silently behind the glass wall.
