The night before i gave birth, i overheard my husband bribe the doctor: "infect her and let her die in delivery. i'll pay you $500,000!" so he could be with his 5-month-pregnant mistress. i pretended to sleep and acted. next day, karma hit him...!

One month before the trial was scheduled to begin, I requested a private visiting room at the Rikers Island High-Security Facility.

I didn't need to go. My legal team had built an airtight case against Flynn, backed by forty hours of audio surveillance, financial forensics, DNA evidence from the seized vials, and Dr. Vance’s explicit testimony.

But I wanted to see him. I wanted to look into the eyes of the man who had ordered my death and let him see the woman who had rebuilt her life on his ruins.

I sat behind the thick glass divider in the small, grey visiting room. A minute later, the heavy iron door opened, and Flynn was led in by two corrections officers.

He looked unrecognizable.

The tailored suits, the styled hair, and the arrogant, charm-drenched posture were completely gone. He wore a bright orange prison jumpsuit, his hair was shaved close to his scalp, his skin was sallow and gray, and his wrists were chained to a heavy leather belt around his waist.

He sat down heavily on the metal stool opposite me, picking up the black plastic telephone receiver with shaking, bruised hands.

I picked up my receiver and held it to my ear.

"Mabel..." he whispered through the glass, his voice raspy and thin. "Mabel... you came. Thank God you came."

"I’m here, Flynn," I said neutrally.

"Mabel, please... you have to speak to the D.A.," he begged, leaning his face against the glass, his eyes wild with desperate, pleading panic. "They’re offering me a twenty-five-year plea sentence! Twenty-five years! I’ll be fifty-five when I get out! I won't survive in here, Mabel! The inmates... they know what I did. They treat me like scum!"

"You are scum, Flynn," I said quietly, my voice calm and devoid of anger.

Flynn flinched as if I had struck him. "Mabel, I was sick! I had a gambling addiction! I was being manipulated by Selina and Dr. Vance! They convinced me that you were going to leave me and take everything! I was terrified of losing you!"

I let out a soft, cold laugh that made Flynn’s eyes widen in confusion.

"You weren't terrified of losing me, Flynn," I said, leaning closer to the glass. "You were terrified of remaining an associate architect on a eighty-thousand-dollar salary while I owned a twelve-million-dollar estate. You wanted my grandfather’s money, but you were too lazy and too cowardly to earn it yourself."

"I loved you, Mabel!" he wept, tears streaming down his hollow cheeks. "For seven years, I loved you! Doesn't seven years of marriage mean anything to you?!"

"Seven years of marriage was just your investment period, wasn't it?" I asked. "You played the humble, patient husband until I got pregnant, until I was vulnerable in a hospital bed, and then you tried to pay a doctor to inject bacteria into my blood."

I reached into my handbag and pulled out a high-resolution photograph, pressing it flat against the glass divider.

It was a picture of three-month-old Leo, sitting in a sunlit nursery, wearing a small white onesie, smiling brightly into the camera with big, intelligent blue eyes.

Flynn stared at the photograph, his breathing halting in his chest.

"That's Leo," I said softly. "He has my grandfather's eyes. He has my smile. And he will never, ever know your name."

"Mabel... please... let me see him once," Flynn sobbed, pressing his forehead against the glass right over the picture. "He’s my son... he’s my blood!"

"You lost the right to be a father the moment you told Dr. Vance that Selina wanted a newborn, not a funeral," I replied, pulling the photograph back and placing it back into my bag. "I’ve filed a formal petition for the total termination of your parental rights. The judge will sign it tomorrow morning."

I stood up from my stool, smoothing down the front of my jacket.

"Mabel! Don't leave me! Mabel!" Flynn screamed into the phone, slamming his hand against the glass divider until the guard grabbed his shoulder and forced him back down. "Mabel, please! I’ll do anything! I’ll plead guilty to everything! Just don't abandon me here!"

I dropped the phone receiver, allowing it to dangle on its metal cord, buzzing with his frantic, muffled screams.