Chapter 21 - The Woman Behind the Prison Glass
I had imagined confronting Sophia hundreds of times during the first years after my divorce.
In my imagination, she always looked glamorous.
She wore expensive perfume, diamond earrings, and that superior smile she had used whenever she wanted to remind me that Vincent had chosen her.
The woman sitting behind the glass in the federal correctional institution looked nothing like my memories.
Her hair was pulled into a plain bun.
Her face was bare.
And her hands trembled as she lifted the telephone.
"Claire."
I didn't smile.
"Sophia."
Vincent sat beside me, while Rebecca waited in the authorized visitors' area with a folder of legal documents.
Sophia's eyes moved toward Vincent.
For one brief second, I saw the old hunger return.
Then it disappeared.
"I didn't think you'd ever come," she said.
"Neither did I."
Sophia swallowed.
"Is Ethan okay?"
Vincent leaned toward the phone.
"He's working hard. He's doing better."
She closed her eyes.
"Good."
I placed a copy of Angelo's letter against the glass.
"Tell me about Adrian Vale."
Her expression changed.
At first, I thought she might refuse to speak.
Then she laughed bitterly.
"So the old snake finally came crawling out of his hole."
"You knew him."
"Of course I knew him."
Vincent's jaw tightened.
"How well?"
Sophia looked at him.
"Your father introduced us."
I felt a sharp pain beneath my ribs.
"Before your affair with Vincent?" I asked.
She nodded.
"I was working in corporate hospitality. Adrian hired me to attend private events where your father wanted introductions made."
"Introductions to whom?"
"Investors. Bankers. Men who believed loyalty meant keeping your mouth shut."
She looked down.
"Your father didn't approve of Claire. He said she made Vincent question things he should simply accept."
Vincent closed his eyes.
Sophia continued.
"Adrian needed Vincent distracted while they completed the waterfront partnership restructuring. Angelo wanted Claire gone."
My fingers tightened around the telephone.
"So you were paid to destroy my marriage."
Sophia looked at me.
"At first."
The words hurt despite everything I knew.
"At first?" I repeated.
"I thought Vincent would lose interest in me after the deal was finished," she said. "But then I became pregnant with Ethan."
Vincent stared at her.
"Did you love me?"
Sophia's eyes filled.
"In my way. But I loved the life more."
For once, she didn't pretend otherwise.
I took a slow breath.
"What happened to the divorce settlement?"
Sophia's expression hardened.
"I redirected the payments. You've already proved that."
"Who showed you how?"
She hesitated.
"Adrian's accountant."
Rebecca stepped closer.
"Do you know his name?"
Sophia looked toward her.
"Martin Keene."
Rebecca wrote it down.
"And the forged acknowledgment?" I asked.
Sophia stared at the copy of the document.
"I never saw that version."
"But you knew something was happening."
"Yes."
She looked at Vincent.
"Your father had access to documents bearing your signature from other transactions. Adrian said his lawyers could create whatever paperwork was necessary."
Vincent gripped the phone.
"You watched them do this?"
"I was twenty-six and thought I was smarter than everybody."
Sophia's voice cracked.
"By the time I understood what I was involved in, I was already stealing from Claire and lying to you."
I felt a surge of anger.
"You could have stopped."
"I know."
"You could have told me."
"I know."
"You let my son grow up without money his father believed he was sending."
Sophia began crying.
I felt no satisfaction.
Her tears couldn't return Noah's childhood.
They couldn't restore the nights I had spent choosing between groceries and electricity.
Sophia looked at me through the glass.
"I was jealous of you."
I almost laughed.
"Of me?"
"You had something Vincent never gave me."
"What?"
"His respect."
I shook my head.
"Respect isn't worth much when a man abandons his wife."
Sophia lowered her eyes.
"You're right."
For several seconds, neither of us spoke.
Then she looked directly at Vincent.
"Adrian kept copies of everything. If he's moving against you now, he's using the old records to make his claims look legitimate."
"Where are the copies?" Rebecca asked.
"I don't know."
Sophia hesitated.
"But I know who helped maintain them."
"Martin Keene?" Rebecca asked.
She shook her head.
"Not anymore. Martin disappeared from Adrian's company years ago."
"Who replaced him?"
Sophia leaned closer to the glass.
"Richard Halden."
My stomach turned.
The trustee who suspended me.
The man connected to Blackwater Pier.
The person whose signature appeared on the transfer of Ethan's workstation.
Sophia's voice dropped.
"Claire, Adrian didn't recruit Richard because he needed a businessman."
"Then why?"
"Because Richard knows how to destroy someone without leaving fingerprints."
She glanced toward the clock.
"And if Adrian has given you a deadline, believe me when I say he's not bluffing."
I looked at the calendar on Rebecca's documents.
October eighteenth was now less than two weeks away.
Outside the prison, dark clouds were gathering over the horizon.
And before we even reached our car, Elena called Noah with news that would change everything.
A major coastal storm was moving north.
May you like
Its projected path crossed Boston.
Its possible arrival date was October eighteenth.
