Chapter 7 - Facing the Monster
Thursday morning.
Elise sat in the passenger seat of my car, staring quietly out the window as we drove toward the federal detention center.
“You don't have to do this,” I told her gently, keeping my eyes on the road. “You gave your statement. The feds have enough to lock him away for life. You never have to look at him again.”
“No,” Elise said, her voice surprisingly firm. “I do.”
When we walked into the visitation room, Arthur was already sitting behind the thick, bulletproof glass. The change in his appearance was staggering. In just four days, the untouchable titan of high society had aged ten years. His skin was gray, his eyes wide with paranoid terror.
He picked up the phone on his side of the glass. Elise picked up hers. I stood silently right behind her, a steady anchor.
“Elise,” Arthur wept. He was actually crying. “Please. You have to tell them it was a lie. You have to tell them you made it up! If I stay in here, the syndicate will kill me! They think I stole their money!”
Elise stared at the man who had haunted her nightmares since she was a little girl.
She looked at his shaking hands. She looked at his pathetic, sniveling face. And then, she did something I had never seen her do before.
She laughed.
It was a sharp, cold sound that echoed through the phone line. Arthur stopped crying, staring at her in shock.
“You told me no one would ever believe me, Arthur,” Elise said, her voice dripping with ice. “You told me I was small. You told me I was powerless. But look at you now. You're begging a girl you abused to save your miserable life.”
“Elise, please—”
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“Rot in hell, Arthur,” Elise whispered.
She hung up the phone. She didn't look back as we walked out of the room, leaving him screaming and pounding his fists against the soundproof glass.
