Cael rushed into the police station confused about when to go; some of the men recognized him instantly, and one of the men went to him.
“How can I help you, sir?”
“My mom,” he said. Since he saw the evidence two days ago, he had always played out a scenario in his mind where she was in jail and he went there, but none of his imagination had encompassed what he felt in the moment. He felt as if someone was taking hold of her heart and playing with it in whatever way they would like.
“Your mom?” the officer who stood in front of him asked in confusion.
“Yes,” he said, shaking his head slowly with his eyes shut. “She came in this morning to turn herself in,” he added.
The officer gasped as he began to put things together, and they finally began to make sense. They wondered why a woman would step forward to turn herself in after fifteen years. If it were to be any other crime, the statutes of limitation might have been over, and she might have been let off with a fine or nothing at all, but with murder, she had to go to trial and face the maximum punishment. She might get a lighter sentence since she was the one who came forward on her own.
“This way, sir,” the officer said, trying to get him to wait in the waiting area.
“I can’t wait; I have to see her now,” Cael said, catching up on what he was trying to do. He did not care if they were gossiping about him or whatever; all he cared about was getting his mom out of there as soon as possible. He did not know how it was going to work, but even if it meant he had to grovel, then so be the case. The officer left and came back a few moments later.
“I can let you see your mom, but only for five minutes,” he said as he led him to the back.
“Thank you,” Cael’s voice came out raspy and cracked. The officer opened the door, and he saw his mom sitting behind the table, her hands handcuffed together. “Can you take off the handcuffs?” Cael asked, almost breaking down at the sight before him.
“I have already broken protocol by letting you meet with her, and I am afraid I cannot do anything more for you,” the officer said, and without a word was out of the room.
“Don’t worry, I am fine,” she said, shaking her hands in the air.
“You are fine?” Cael choked out with unbelief. “You are fine, yet you are sitting across from me with your hands bound together. What are you doing here?”
“I came to turn myself in,” she said with a smile.
“You came to turn yourself in? Why on earth would you do that?” he asked, slowly lowering himself into the chair across from her. As he tried to hold her hands, he noticed how big and wide the table was. His hands could barely hold onto hers.
“It is time that I serve my punishment. If Charles protected me all these years and I still acted that way, then I should pay for the protection.” Cael could not understand a word she said. It made no sense to him at all.
“I will go out there and try to bail you out, so do not say a word and do not move,” he said, standing up and pushing the chair back, and as it slid on the cold floor, it made a screeching sound.
“You do not have to do that,” she said, leaning her back into the seat.
“Are you yearning to have jail experience?” he asked angrily. “What is this? Why would you do this?”
“Cael,” she said in the voice of someone who was about to say something important. “I killed a man, and if I have been given this much grace, don’t you think that after a while I should pay for my sins and the grace extended to me?” she said.
“Do you have to do this now?”
“You do not need me again; you are grown and can take care of yourself,” she said.
“Who says I do not need you?” he said, a tear falling to his face.
“I am sure you are capable of taking care of yourself now,” she added. The police knocked on the door before opening the door.
“We have to move her now.”
“Move her to where?” Cael asked, getting all defensive.
“Her family will be given an update as soon as the move is finalized,” the man said, walking to Abigail and making her stand. He held her by the elbow and began dragging her out. She begged the officer to stop for a moment before turning to her son, who stood there watching her being dragged away like an animal.
“Remember, Cael, Mom loves you too much,” she said before the officer pulled her away.
Cael hated that he had to be the one to deliver the bad news; Charles had asked him to go find out what was going on and then come and tell him. He hoped that Charles would be able to do something about the situation at hand. He met Frances by the door with her bags packed.
“What are you doing out here?” he asked.
“Good you are here,” she said, taking a step forward before he could reach her.
“What are the bags for?”
“When I agreed to marry you, I thought you would be the chairman, and I did not think that your mother would be a murderer. I do not think I can stay here with you,” she said shamelessly.
“In the end, all you cared about was material things; you never loved me,” he said and then shook his head at himself for expecting more.
“Money makes the world go around, and I do not want to be in a place where I have to be second again.” She had always hated being the second daughter of her parents and she had thought her marriage to him would help her change things but everything was like when she first started.
“So you are going to leave me?”
“Do I have any other choice?” She took out some papers from her bag that had been hanging on her luggage; she pushed them to him and murmured “Sign it” to him. He looked up at her, wondering why his life was falling apart.
He thought he would have been able to find solace in her, but here she was, ready to break his heart. “Have you thought this through?” he asked, and she nodded.
“I am going to start a new life with the money I get from the alimony,” she added, dropping a pen in front of him. “So please hurry up and sign, okay?”
Cael took up the pen and clicked it; he appended his signature on the paper before giving it back to her. “I guess this is bye?”
“Let us never meet again.”