Chapter 4 - The Prison Visit
The visiting room at the Norfolk Federal Detention Center was cold and thick with the scent of quiet despair. Fluorescent lighting cast a sickly yellow glow down upon a thick acrylic security barrier, dividing the room into two entirely separate worlds.
Arthur Vance sat on the other side of that glass.
He had stripped off his expensive tuxedo, wearing instead the pale orange-grey jumpsuit of inmate #84920. His formerly meticulous silver hair was disheveled and unkempt. His face was hollow, eyes sunken with dark rings from sleepless nights. Looking at him now, no one could possibly connect him to the shipping tycoon who had ruled maritime commerce for forty years.
When I entered the room, sat down, and picked up the intercom phone, Arthur raised his head. His eyes flickered with a chaotic mix of emotions: fury, hatred, humiliation, and a sliver of fear.
He picked up his receiver, his voice raspy and faint through the tiny speaker: “Did you... did you come here to mock me, Emily? To watch your father humiliate himself inside this iron cage?”
I looked at him through the thick glass, my tone calm and utterly devoid of ripples: “If I wanted to mock you, Mr. Vance, I wouldn’t waste my time standing here. I came to get an answer to a question I’ve never had answered satisfactorily in the past five years.”
Arthur gave a tired, bitter laugh. “What question? About the shipments? The Swiss accounts? You took everything already anyway! My company, my reputation, this whole family... you smashed it to pieces!”
“No, not about the company.” I lowered my gaze slightly before looking him dead in the eye. “The day I turned fourteen, three months after mom passed away, I accidentally saw documents inside your office safe. I asked you why the ships flying the Vance flag carried uninspected containers. What did you do?”
Arthur froze. His eyes flickered continuously, as though the memories of the past had returned to haunt him.
“You slapped me down to the floor.” I continued, my voice even yet sharp as a blade. “You told me I was just a daughter, with no right to interfere in men’s business. After that, you purposely sent me to the strictest military boarding school in the state, hoping it would break my will and turn me into a docile puppet who knew how to obey.”
“I... I did it all for the future of this family!” Arthur argued desperately, his voice rising in panic. “You think the corporate world out there is easy? To keep this empire standing among giants, I had to compromise with devils! You don’t understand anything about the real world!”
“Right, I don’t understand the world of people who sell their conscience for luxury cars and tens of millions in mansions.” I cut him off, my voice unyielding. “But I understand the world of true soldiers—people willing to shed their blood to protect the peace for millions of others, even hypocrites like you.”
Arthur trembled. He pressed his palms flat against the glass barrier, as if trying to reach the daughter he had never truly understood. – “Emily... I’m begging you... I’m still your father. My legal team... can you use your corporate shares to bail me out? A life sentence... I won’t survive in here...”
I looked at him for a long, quiet moment. There was no overwhelming hatred, no triumphant gloating, only a profound sense of finality.
“It’s too late, Mr. Vance.” I placed the receiver back on the cradle and stood straight. “Justice cannot be negotiated. And the scars on my back are an indictment that can never be erased.”
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“Emily! Emily! Don’t leave me!” Arthur banged his fist against the glass, screaming in desperation as I turned and walked away. “I’m your father! You can’t do this to me!”
I didn’t look back. The heavy door of the visiting room shut behind me, completely cutting off the dark world of the man who had once been the greatest shadow of my childhood.