Chapter 4 - The Cell Block Confrontation
The Cook County Department of Corrections was a massive, bleak concrete complex on the south side of the city.
At 2:00 PM on Wednesday afternoon, I sat behind a thick pane of bulletproof glass inside Visiting Room B. The room smelled faintly of industrial disinfectant and stale tobacco.
The heavy steel door on the opposite side of the partition clicked unlocked.
A correction officer guided Daniel into the room. He wore a baggy orange jumpsuit, his hands handcuffed in front of his waist, his wrists secured to a leather belly chain. His dark hair was unwashed and uncombed, and the polished, arrogant confidence he had carried for years was completely gone, replaced by a twitchy, bloodshot desperation.
He sat down heavily on the metal stool, holding the yellow plastic receiver to his ear with both hands.
I picked up my phone.
"Evelyn," Daniel choked out, his voice buzzing harshly through the earpiece. "Evelyn, thank God you came. You have to get me out of here. Please. The people in here... they don't care who I am. They put me in a cell with three men charged with armed robbery!"
I looked at him silently, my face completely expressionless.
"Evelyn!" he pleaded, pressing his forehead against the glass. "It was my mother! You have to understand—Margaret forced me into this! She was the one who forged your signature! She was the one who set up the offshore accounts in Nevis! She told me if I didn't help her, she would cut me out of her estate!"
"You held my arm, Daniel," I said, my voice quiet and cold against the receiver.
Daniel flinched as if I had slapped him. "I... I was panicking! I didn't know she was going to push you!"
"You pulled my IV out," I continued, stating each fact with brutal, unwavering precision. "You held my wrist while blood ran down my forearm. And when I was tumbling down sixteen marble stairs, you stepped in front of a nineteen-year-old nurse to prevent her from saving my life."
"Evelyn, I love you!" Daniel sobbed, real tears finally spilling down his pale, stubbled cheeks. "We can fix this! We can go to counseling! I'll sign whatever you want! I'll give up the house, the cars, the accounts—just tell the District Attorney you don't want to press charges!"
"Do you know what I found in my father's safe yesterday, Daniel?" I asked softly.
Daniel froze, his breath catching in his throat.
"I found a letter my father wrote three weeks before he died," I said. "He knew you were sleeping with your secretary in Milwaukee. He knew Margaret was gambling away her trust fund at the riverboat casinos in Indiana. He was preparing to cut you out of the family trust entirely before his heart attack took him."
Daniel stared at me through the glass, his eyes wide with absolute horror.
"You didn't marry me because you loved me, Daniel," I whispered. "You married me because you and your mother saw a sick girl with a forty-million-dollar company, and you thought I would be easy to kill."
"Evelyn... please..." he whimpered.
"Your mother’s trial begins in three months," I said, standing up from my chair and adjusting my sling. "And Arthur filed the final divorce papers with the court an hour ago. You have nothing left, Daniel. No money, no shares, no mother to protect you, and no wife to save you."
May you like
I hung up the plastic receiver, set it neatly back on its metal cradle, and turned my back on him.
Behind the bulletproof glass, Daniel began to scream my name, slamming his handcuffed fists against the ledge, until two guards seized his arms and dragged him backward through the heavy steel door.
