Chapter 9 - BEHIND BARRED WINDOWS
Six months later.
The criminal trial of State of Connecticut v. Derek Monroe and Lorraine Monroe did not drag on as long as the defense had hoped.
Faced with overwhelming paper trails, digital recordings, testimony from Chloe Vance and her father, and the complete collapse of their public reputation, both defendants accepted global plea agreements to avoid maximum thirty-year sentences.
Lorraine Monroe pled guilty to secondary wire fraud and obstruction of justice. She was sentenced to four years in a federal correctional facility, ordered to surrender all personal assets, and forced to pay three hundred thousand dollars in restitution.
Derek Monroe pled guilty to federal grand larceny, bank fraud, interstate transportation of stolen property, and felony child endangerment. He was sentenced to fourteen years in state prison without the possibility of parole for the first eight years.
On the morning before his transfer to the maximum-security state penitentiary, I requested a fifteen-minute meeting with him at the county correctional facility.
I sat behind a thick pane of bulletproof glass in the visiting room.
Derek was brought in by a guard. He looked twenty years older. His hair was thinning, his skin was sickly pale, and the arrogant sparkle that had once filled his eyes was completely gone. He sat down heavily and picked up the red telephone receiver.
I picked up mine.
"You came," Derek said, his voice raspy through the small speaker. "I didn't think you'd come, Allison."
"I came to deliver something to you in person," I said quietly.
I pressed a single sheet of paper against the glass.
It was the final decree of divorce, stamped by the State of Connecticut, along with a legal name change document. My name was officially restored to Allison Harrington. Caleb’s surname had been legally changed to Harrington as well. The name 'Monroe' was completely erased from our lives.
Derek stared at the paper through the glass, a single tear slipping down his cheek.
"I ruined everything, didn't I?" he whispered. "I had a family. I had a wife who loved me when I had nothing. I had a son... and I threw it all away for champagne and marble floors."
"You didn't throw it away, Derek," I corrected him, my voice steady and without a trace of anger. "You revealed who you always were. You thought poverty made me weak. You thought isolating me in that trailer made me powerless. But all it did was show me how strong I could be when I had to protect my son."
"Can I... can I ever see Caleb again?" he begged, his fingers pressing against the glass. "When I get out? When I serve my time?"
"Caleb doesn't know who you are, Derek," I said softly. "When he asks about his father, I tell him the truth: that his father was a man who made choices, and that those choices took him far away. He doesn't miss you. He doesn't need you. We are whole without you."
I hung up the phone.
May you like
Derek slammed his fist against the glass, weeping loudly, calling my name as the guards stepped forward, grabbed his arms, and dragged him backward through the heavy metal door.
I turned my back on him and walked out into the crisp, clean daylight.
