Chapter 5 - The Interrogation RoomBy noon, the federal detention center downtown was cold, sterile, and smelling faintly of industrial disinfectant.
I sat in the observation booth behind a one-way mirror, watching the small interrogation room below. Reed sat at the metal table, his wrists secured to bolted cuffs, his posture slumped in total defeat. The high-end designer suit he had worn to poison my salmon was now wrinkled and stained with sweat.
The door opened, and federal investigator entered, tossing a thick manila folder onto the table.
"Sign the confession, Reed," the investigator said flatly. "Your sister-in-law—excuse me, your accomplice, Celeste—has already given a full statement detailing how you planned the poisoning, how you disabled the security cameras, and how you forged the life insurance documents."
Reed slammed his cuffed hands against the metal table, his voice rising in hysterical desperation.
"She’s lying! Celeste is insane! I didn't want to kill her, I just wanted her out of the way! The board was going to oust me! You don't understand the pressure I was under!"
"We understand the charges perfectly," the investigator replied without a hint of emotion. "Attempted murder in the first degree, corporate fraud, embezzlement, and conspiracy. You’re looking at a minimum of forty years without parole."
Up in the observation booth, I watched the man who had once stood before a ballroom full of charitable donors and lied about the true meaning of strength. He looked small. Pitiful. Stripped of his money, his tailored clothes, and his stolen power, he was nothing more than a coward hiding behind a borrowed name.
My mother stepped into the booth beside me, placing a warm hand on my shoulder.
"Do you want to go down there?" she asked quietly. "Do you want to look him in the eye?"
I shook my head, a calm, liberating smile spreading across my face.
May you like
"No," I replied, turning my wheelchair away from the mirror. "Visiting him would mean he still occupies space in my mind. He’s history, Mom. Let the federal prison system handle the rest."
As we left the observation booth and walked down the long, secure hallway toward the sunlight waiting outside, I felt a weight lift off my shoulders that I hadn't even realized I was carrying. The paralysis in my legs was still a physical reality, but my spirit—the part of me that Reed and Celeste had tried so desperately to crush—was completely free.
