Chapter 6 - The Visitor in the Dark
Two weeks had passed since the night of the St. Regis gala.
The name Vance Tech had been completely scrubbed from the financial registries of Washington state. Its former headquarters, a glass tower downtown, now bore the silver crest of the Sterling Conglomerate: the silver lion holding a sword.
Inside the King County Correctional Facility, Mark Vance looked barely recognizable. He had lost weight, his face was gaunt, and the once-pristine hair he used to style so meticulously was greasy and unkempt. His blue jumpsuit hung loosely over his shoulders.
He sat at the visitor's table, staring blankly at the thick glass partition separating him from the outside world.
Suddenly, the heavy door on the visitor's side opened.
Mark jumped up, his heart hammering against his ribs. He expected his public defender—a overworked junior lawyer who barely spent ten minutes talking to him.
Instead, Mina stepped into the room.
She wore a dark tailored wool coat over an immaculate charcoal pantsuit. She looked breathtakingly calm, a vision of absolute success and elegance. She sat down on the stool across from him, picking up the heavy plastic phone receiver mounted on the wall.
Mark frantically grabbed his receiver, pressing it hard against his ear. "Mina! Mina, you came! I knew you’d come!" he cried, his voice crackling through the line. "Thank God! You haven't abandoned me! I knew you couldn't be this cold!"
Mina looked at him through the glass. Her face was an unreadable mask of cool marble. "I came because my legal team requested I complete the final sign-off on the asset division, Mark. Not because I miss you."
"Mina, please!" Mark slammed his free hand against the glass, tears streaming down his hollow cheeks. "Look at me! Look at what they're doing to me in here! I’m in with real criminals, Mina! I’m a CEO! I don't belong in this place!"
"You belong wherever your actions lead you, Mark," she said quietly. "You stole millions from your investors. You committed tax fraud. You spent company funds on luxury gifts for your mistress. You belong in a cell."
"I was stupid! I was arrogant!" Mark pleaded, his voice breaking into ugly sobs. "I didn't realize what I had! I thought... I thought you were just a simple girl who didn't care about anything. You never told me who you were! If you had just told me you were a Sterling, I would have treated you like a queen! I would have worshiped the ground you walked on!"
Mina closed her eyes briefly, letting out a soft, pitying sigh.
"And that, Mark, is the core of your pathetic existence," she said, her voice dripping with quiet disdain. "If I had told you, you would have loved my money, my family, and my power. You would have been an obedient lapdog to my title. I stayed quiet because I wanted to see if you had a soul. I wanted to see if you could love a woman for her heart, her mind, and her presence."
She opened her eyes, looking directly into his desperate, bloodshot pupils.
"You proved that without money and status, you see people as worthless trash. You treated me like a ghost because I wore plain clothes. You let your mistress mock me because she wore crimson. You made your choice based on superficial greed, Mark. And now you are paying the price for it."
"Mina, please..." Mark begged, leaning his forehead against the glass. "Give me one more chance. I’ll do anything. I’ll sign whatever you want. I’ll go to therapy. I’ll publically apologize! Just get me out of here. Don't leave me in the dark."
Mina slowly raised a thin manila envelope, sliding it under the small document slot at the bottom of the glass.
"Those are the final decree papers," she said smoothly. "The judge has already signed off on the annulment based on fraud and misrepresentation. Our marriage never existed in the eyes of the law. You are no longer my husband. You are simply a convict waiting for sentencing."
Mark looked down at the paper. His trembling fingers touched the white sheet, seeing her signature—Mina Sterling—bold and absolute.
"What about Jessica?" Mark spat, his tone suddenly turning bitter and vicious. "Is she going to jail too? She was the one who pushed me! She was the one who insisted on the luxury trips! She ruined us!"
"Jessica is currently working twenty-four hours a week at a diner near the bus terminal to pay her court fines," Mina informed him coldly. "Her luxury items were auctioned off yesterday morning. Her reputation is destroyed, her career in marketing is over, and she faces three years of probation."
Mina stood up, smoothing the front of her coat.
"You two deserved each other," Mina said, taking a step back from the glass. "Two hollow people chasing shiny things, completely blind to the fact that real value isn't sold in stores."
"Mina! Don't go! Mina!" Mark beat his fists against the glass, the sound echoing loudly through the secure visiting area. "Mina! Look at me! DON'T LEAVE ME!"
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The security guards stepped forward, pulling Mark's arms behind his back and forcing him down into the chair.
Mina didn't turn back. She hung up the phone receiver, stepped through the heavy steel door, and walked out into the bright afternoon sun, leaving the echoes of his screaming behind her forever.
