Chapter 6 - The Stripping of the Rings
The booking room of the county jail was a stark contrast to the luxury Frederick and Avery had enjoyed for decades. Avery sat on a cold steel bench, her expensive fur coat confiscated, her designer handbag replaced by a clear plastic property sack. She had not been arrested for the embezzlement, but she was being held as a material witness and co-conspirator in the attempted flight from prosecution.
Hazel walked into the room, accompanied by Deputy Vance. She didn't look like the grieving, broken widow Avery had mocked on the porch forty-eight hours prior. She looked like the absolute sovereign of the Beaumont legacy.
Avery looked up, her face streaked with tears and running mascara. "Are you satisfied?" she whispered, her voice cracking with a bitter, defensive rage. "You’ve put my husband in a cage. You’ve taken our home, our money, our social standing. The entire city is talking about us. We are pariahs because of you."
"You are pariahs because of your own choices, Avery," Hazel said, walking up to the steel mesh partition. "For eleven years, I watched you look down your nose at the people who worked for your family. I watched you treat my children like second-class citizens because they didn't share your obsession with status. And yesterday, you stood on my porch and told me that without Jasper, I was nobody."
Hazel held out her open hand through the slot in the partition. "Give it back."
Avery blinked, her hand instinctively closing into a fist. "What?"
"My wedding ring," Hazel said, her voice dropping into a dangerous, unyielding whisper. "The ring Jasper gave me. The one you pulled from my finger while my son was bleeding from a blow your husband delivered. Hand it over, Avery."
Avery looked at the diamond ring, her last remaining symbol of the aristocratic world she had lost. For a second, she looked as if she were going to refuse, to fight, to scream. But Deputy Vance stepped forward, his hand resting significantly on his belt.
With a trembling, broken sob, Avery pulled the ring from her finger and dropped it into Hazel’s open palm. The metal was cold, but the diamond caught the harsh fluorescent light of the jailhouse, shining with an unshakeable, timeless brilliance.
Hazel looked at the ring, a soft, emotional smile touching her lips for the first time in days. She slid it back onto her left ring finger, where it belonged, a perfect fit.
May you like
"Thank you," Hazel said, looking down at her mother-in-law one final time. "The house is being sold to cover the employee pension deficit. The luxury vehicles are being auctioned by the state. You have forty-eight hours to find a rental apartment outside the city limits. If I ever see you near my children again, Avery, I will ensure the district attorney looks into your personal tax returns for Apex Logistics. Have a pleasant evening."
She turned and walked out of the booking room, the ring on her finger shining like a beacon of absolute victory as she left the last remnant of the old Beaumont tyranny behind.
