Chapter 13 - A Voice from the Cage
Winter arrived in Chicago with a brutal, freezing vengeance.
Snow heavily blanketed the quiet streets, making our warm apartment feel even more inviting.
I was sitting by the fireplace, wrapping Christmas presents for Sophie, when the telephone suddenly rang.
The caller ID displayed a generic number from the Illinois Department of Corrections.
My heart skipped a tiny beat, but I did not panic.
I calmly pressed the green accept button and placed the phone on speaker.
An automated voice loudly announced that I had a collect call from an inmate at the maximum-security facility.
"Evelyn, please don't hang up," Preston’s pathetic, trembling voice crackled through the terrible connection.
He sounded completely different from the arrogant executive who used to terrorize me.
His voice was thin, desperate, and filled with a miserable kind of fear.
"What do you want, Preston?" I asked, my tone as cold as the ice outside my window.
"I need your help," he begged, his words tumbling out in a rushed panic.
"Mom and Dad are in federal lockup, and all their accounts are frozen."
"I don't have any money for the prison commissary, Evelyn."
"I can't buy extra food, I can't buy warm socks, and the other inmates are extorting me."
I sat back in my comfortable chair, staring at the beautiful, glowing embers in the fireplace.
The absolute audacity of his request was almost comical.
He had tried to permanently brain-damage my child, yet he still expected me to serve him.
"You hit an eight-year-old girl with a wooden board, Preston."
"You blamed her for a theft you orchestrated just to satisfy your own twisted ego."
"You ruined the lives of dozens of elderly clients who trusted you with their life savings."
He started crying loudly, the pathetic sobs of a coward facing actual consequences.
"I am your brother, Evelyn!"
"You have to forgive me because we are family!"
I picked up the phone, holding it close to my mouth so he could hear every single syllable clearly.
"We are not family, Preston."
"You are just a monster rotting in a cage."
"Do not ever call this number again."
I pressed the end button, permanently blocking the prison's outgoing lines.
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I tossed the phone onto the sofa and smiled, returning to my beautiful wrapping paper.
The ghost of my brother had finally been exorcised.
