Chapter 9 - The Prison VisitThree months later.
The Twin Towers Correctional Facility in downtown Los Angeles was cold, noisy, and reeked of industrial floor cleaner.
Inside the visiting room, behind a thick pane of bulletproof glass, sat Spencer Albright.
He looked unrecognizable. His tailored tuxedos were replaced by an ill-fitting navy blue jumpsuit. His face was thin, covered in patchy stubble, and his eyes were sunken with dark, hollow circles.
The heavy door opened, and Gwen walked inside.
She wore a crisp white suit, her dark hair flowing over her shoulders, looking radiant, powerful, and completely untouched by time.
She picked up the plastic telephone receiver on her side of the glass.
Spencer grabbed his receiver with trembling hands, pressing his face close to the glass.
"Gwen... Gwen, please!" he sobbed into the phone, his voice hoarse and broken. "You have to help me! My lawyer says I'm facing twenty years in federal prison! My mother is in a state facility! We have nothing left!"
Gwen listened to his desperate crying without a single flicker of emotion on her face.
"You brought this upon yourself, Spencer," she said softly into the phone.
"I was stupid! I was foolish!" Spencer wept, slamming his free fist against the glass. "Cassandra manipulated me! She tricked me! I love you, Gwen! I love Hazel! Please... let me see my daughter! Give me one more chance to be a father!"
Gwen leaned forward slightly, her cold brown eyes locking into his.
"You lost the right to call yourself her father the moment you let that woman strike her," Gwen said, her voice dropping into a chilling register. "Hazel doesn't even remember your name anymore, Spencer. When she asks about her father, I tell her he was a weak man who vanished into the dark."
Spencer choked on his tears, his shoulders slumping in complete defeat.
"I signed the final termination of parental rights today," Gwen added, pulling a certified court document from her purse and holding it against the glass window. "The judge signed it an hour ago. You no longer exist to my family."
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She set the phone back on its hook, stood up from her chair, and smoothed down her white jacket.
"Enjoy your twenty years, Spencer," she said softly through the speaker. "It's a very long time to think about two baby teeth."
