Seven Years Broken Chapter 11
“I’ll go.” I agreed calmly. “Once the time is set, send me the address and the process.”
The afternoon before the execution, I had the driver stop the car about 200 meters away from the prison gates, and I walked the rest of the way myself.
I didn’t even bother combing my hair. I didn’t want to show up looking put-together in front of someone who was about to reach the end of her life.
The prison visitation room was bare and cold with gray-white walls and a thick pane of glass dividing the middle, a metal chair on each side.
I hadn’t been sitting for long before a guard brought Deanna in.
She was nothing like she used to be. Her hair had turned gray. Her cheekbones jutted sharply. The woman who once carried herself with ambition and confidence, climbing higher and higher, was now nothing more than a hollow shell.
I said nothing and just looked at her.
She stared back at me for a long time.
“I’m sorry… Corey. I’m so sorry.
“I know saying this now doesn’t matter, but I still want to tell you that I regret everything. If I hadn’t lost my way back then, if I hadn’t gotten tangled up with Darren, we…”
I cut her off. “There are no ‘ifs’. Deanna, you didn’t end up here because of anyone else. You chose this.”
She fell silent for a few seconds, then suddenly began talking about our college days. Her words were disjointed, but there was an almost obsessive sincerity behind them.
“Do you remember? That winter in our sophomore year, when I got sick with a fever, you knew I was broke and couldn’t afford proper meals, so you always bought an extra portion for me.
“On our wedding day, I made a promise to you on stage that I’d treat you well for the rest of my life. I meant it, Corey. I really did want to spend my life with you…”
The more she spoke, the more emotional she became. Tears streamed down her face.
“I got greedy. I was ungrateful. I thought that with Darren, with the child, I could still keep the Cunningham family’s business, but I never expected…
“I lost everything. I lost everything…”
I listened quietly.
The memories she brought up flickered through my mind. The feelings I once had-the trust, the love – had all been crushed to dust the moment she betrayed me.
Hearing her talk about it now stirred nothing in me, only irony. People only remember what they once had after they’ve lost everything.
She spoke for nearly an hour. Her voice grew weaker and weaker until she finally stopped.
“Corey…” She looked up at me. “I know I deserve to die, but I still want to ask you not to hate me. Okay? I don’t want to carry your hatred with me.”
I looked at her tear-streaked face, then slowly stood, brushing off my sleeve.
“Time’s up. No one will mention you again.”
She froze.
As I turned to leave, she suddenly slammed her hands against the glass, frantic.
The guards rushed forward and restrained her. She struggled, trying to catch one last glimpse of me/I didn’t look
back.
The next day, I didn’t follow the news of her execution. I went to work like usual.
At lunchtime, my secretary approached carefully. “Mr. Graham, the prison just sent notice. Deanna’s sentence has been carried out.”
“Got it. In the afternoon, order a bouquet of white daisies. Have them delivered to the cemetery.”
My secretary hesitated for a moment before nodding. He probably thought I still held onto some lingering feelings.
But only I knew that that bouquet wasn’t for love or friendship. It was for the piece of my youth that had been betrayed, for the naive version of myself I used to be.
Once those flowers were laid down, it would all be over. Completely.
I have parents who love me, a career that continues to grow, genuine friends, and countless days ahead filled with possibilities.
As for Deanna and those seven years that were thrown away, they were nothing more than a brief detour in my life.
The bouquet placed before her grave had already said goodbye to the past for me.
From here on out, I would live well and love myself.
I would become exactly the person I wanted to be.
Fierce. Free. And radiant.
