Blanca Like Snow

Chapter 50 - Hiatus

        It's been barely five minutes when the doors at the other side of the glass open, and escorted by two guards comes Laura, her hair tied in a ponytail at the back of her neck, just wearing her prison overall that does't suit her at all. The glamour and enchanting aura that was her trade mark before is gone and she looks dull, opaque. She also looks miserable, hopeless and contrary to what I expected, no, that doesn't give me as much satisfaction as I was hoping for. Yet, the little bit of sympathy I feel when I see her disappears the moment our eyes meet and I only see venom in hers. She grimaces, showing her teeth and stopping on her tracks, reluctant to sit in front of me.

I've come to see Laura after three weeks since the trial took place, because I felt like I needed to truly persuade myself it was really over. Sometimes I would still wake up, unsure whether I dreamed it or not. Whoever is nearby at that moment, whether Will or Nora when I stay overnight at the office, has to reassure me it did happen and Laura is indeed in prison.

It's still hard to believe and it feels odd that it ended, so easily. No, I don't mean it was easy to get to that point because it took patience, hard work and a lot of planning and preparation, but it ended with a word. The judge said, 'guilty' and it was over, and somehow that felt so anticlimactic.

You know like when you expect a huge battle at the end of the movie, with blood and screams and slow motion? Something epic after so much struggle and all the build up? I guess I expected something like that but it ended over a small word, one that carried more power than any weapon. Still, I felt unbalanced after it, and needed to see Laura with my own eyes to believe it.

That's what brought me to this moment, to see Laura glaring at me until a guard nudges her to keep walking and sit down, which she does reluctantly. The glass between us has many holes that allow us to hear each other, but for a while we only stare at the other without saying a word.

"You little bitch," Laura finally sneers, with a poisonous hiss. "Did you come here to mock me? To rub in my face what you did to me? Did you come to rejoice in my misery? Are you happy after ruining my life?"

The fact she's verbally attacking me, blaming me for this, kills the last bit of sympathy I felt for her.

"No, I didn't come for that and you're mistaken about something, Laura," I speak, confidently and resolute. "I didn't ruin your life, you did."

"You were the one who sued me and—"

"You're delusional if you think that's when things turned for the worst for you," I interrupt my stepmother. "You went wrong when you killed your humanity because of your own greed. When you married my father not because of his good heart but because of his money."

"I didn't marry him because of his money! I loved him," she cries out but I shake my head.

"If you did, you lost all credibility when you tried to kill me to take control of the company," I refute. "Even if you actually did love him, no one will believe you." I don't know if she's acting or not, but her eyes do tear up. "You ruined your life, Laura. I don't know exactly when you took the wrong turn, but you did it yourself and what you're living now is just the consequences of all your wrong decisions."

"If you had only died when you were supposed to, I wouldn't be here!" she insists, the tears falling this time. "Why do you have to be so stubborn and keep surviving no matter what I try?"

"And the fact you are angry about that instead of regretful is why you're here, Laura," I point out, not letting her tears affect me in the slightest. "You should be apologising to me instead of blaming me for this."

"No, no, it's your fault. I was just trying to be happy and you got in the way. Why is it so wrong wanting to be happy?" she continues crying and for a moment I'm shocked. Is she really asking me that?