Chapter 7 - A Pack of Wolves Turns
Three weeks later. Franklin County Women’s Correctional Facility.
The non-contact visitation room was separated by thick panels of bulletproof glass, divided into small stalls with heavy stainless-steel counters and gray plastic telephones.
I sat in Stall 4, wearing a plain gray sweater and jeans, waiting.
The heavy iron door on the inmate side clicked open, and Kendra was guided into the stall by a female corrections officer.
She looked unrecognizable. Three weeks in county lockup had stripped away every trace of her superficial elegance. Her roots were showing, her skin was pale and breaking out, and she had dark, sunken hollows under her eyes. She wore an ill-fitting gray jumpsuit and plastic orange slides.
She picked up the plastic telephone with trembling, bruised fingers, pressing it to her ear.
I picked up my receiver, keeping my face completely blank.
"Elena..." Kendra’s voice squeaked through the earpiece, high and desperate. "Thank God you came. My public defender said you refused three visit requests."
"I didn't come here to talk about your feelings, Kendra," I said coldly. "I came because your attorney sent a plea bargain proposal to my lawyer yesterday."
Kendra leaned closer to the glass, her eyes wide with frantic intensity. "Elena, listen to me! My lawyer says if I agree to testify against Mom—if I testify that she was the one who planned the cover-up and that she’s been stealing your identity—the prosecutor will reduce my charges to a misdemeanor! I can get probation! I won't have to go to prison!"
I looked at my sister through the glass, feeling a profound, bitter disgust. "You’re ready to sell out your own mother to save yourself."
"She sold ME out!" Kendra shrieked, pressing her palm against the glass. "Do you know what she told her lawyer last week?! She told her lawyer that I was the one who pushed Sophie! She told them I was drunk and lost my temper! She tried to pin the whole thing on me!"
A cold, bitter laugh escaped my lips. "Of course she did. That’s who she is. That’s who both of you are."
"Elena, please!" Kendra wept, pulling at the collar of her jumpsuit. "I’m twenty-eight years old! If I get a felony on my record, my career is over! I’ll never get a job! I’ll lose my apartment!"
"Sophie was six years old when her skull was fractured on that floor," I said, my voice dropping into a low, terrifying register that made Kendra freeze. "You stood over her unconscious body and worried about a gravy boat. You told Mom to lie to the paramedics. You called me from jail and tried to blackmail me."
"I was stupid! I was panicked!" Kendra stammered.
"No," I corrected her. "You were cruel. You thought because I was separated, stressed, and trying to give my daughter a nice holiday, you could tread on us forever. You thought money and status made you untouchable."
I leaned closer to the glass, staring directly into her terrified eyes.
"I told Prosecutor Reed this morning that I will not approve any plea bargain for you. None."
Kendra’s face went dead white. "What?"
"You are going to trial alongside her," I said, every word dripping with absolute, unyielding finality. "You are going to stand in front of a jury of twelve people, and you are going to watch that video played in high-definition over and over again until every person in that room sees what you truly are."
"You monster!" Kendra screamed through the phone, slamming her hand against the bulletproof glass. "You’re destroying your own family!"
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"You destroyed this family on Thanksgiving," I said softly.
I hung up the plastic telephone, set it back on its metal hook, stood up from the stool, and walked out of the visitation room while Kendra pounded her fists against the glass behind me, screaming words that no longer had any power over my life.
