—Sybil
“You sure you want to do this?” Diego asks me for what seems like the millionth time.
“Yeah. I need this. I need closure.”
“You want me to go with you?”
“No. I need to do this on my own. She can’t hurt me anymore.”
“I still don’t want you around her even if there is a glass pane separating you.”
“I’ll be fine. There will be guards present. Besides, Winnie said she felt good energy from this.” I love that he cares, but this is something I’ve been wanting to do since I found out I was pregnant with our little prince. Neither of us can agree on a name. I didn’t tell Diego. Winnie says we will name our son Rico Emanuel Diaz as a compromise. I don’t see that happening, but the woman is never wrong. Which she loves to prove.
“Okay. I’ll be waiting right here.”
“I’ll be back before you know it. What I want to say to her won’t take long.”
“Don’t let her upset you. It’s not good for the baby.”
“I got this.”
“Yeah. You do, Princessa.”
I give my man a quick kiss and enter the prison where Consuela my evil step-monster is incarcerated. She is still awaiting trial. I go through the security measures and once I am all signed in, I enter the visiting room where a glass partition separates visitors from prisoners.
I take my seat and wait. Eventually a woman is brought in. When she sits down in front of me, I barely recognize her. Time and prison hasn’t been kind to her. She has a scar above her lip and a blackened eye. No longer able to receive Botox injections her wrinkles are starting to prevail. Without trips to the salon to cover her grey hair, it is now becoming the predominant color.
Without makeup and all the other glamour tricks to alter her appearance, Consuela looks like the hag I know her to be. “Why are you here?” She sneers.
“You know…when I was a girl all I wanted was a mother. Someone to love me and teach me how to be a woman, but I am so thankful you hated me. I am grateful that you weren’t the one to teach me about the kind of person I wanted to be. I absorbed all the goodness my father shined on the world and I grasped onto it for dear life. My child will never know the evil that is coiled tight deep inside you. You’re going to die old and alone in here. You’re a pathetic waste of space and tax dollars. I only have one thing to say to you and this will be the last time you ever see me. I forgive you. I forgive you for being jealous of my mother and the love she shared with my father. I forgive you for what you did. You’re the one who has to live with what you did. You took so much away from me and yet here I am on the other side of this glass, married to a great man and having his child. I guess I have you to thank for that. I wouldn’t have met him had you not tried to kill me.”
I don’t wait for a reply. I push my chair back and start toward the door when she mutters, “I loved you once. I wanted to be the mother you deserved. You’re right. I was jealous, and I lost everything I held dear. I’m paying for my sins.”
I know she’s trying to bait me into staying but I’m not falling for it. She doesn’t have a conscious. She is pure evil. “Goodbye, Consuela.”
“Sybil,” she cries out for me. I don’t glance back. I keep moving forward toward brighter days. I’m leaving the past where it belongs—behind me.
Strolling out of the prison I feel lighter. Like I can let go of that part of my life and keep looking to the future.
As promised Diego is waiting outside the doors.
“You okay, baby?”
“I’m good. A tad hungry.”
“Come on. Let’s get out of here.”
I knit my fingers with his. A calm feeling washes over me, and I know that nothing is going to stop us from living happily ever after. Diego is no prince charming. He’s a rough and rugged biker, but he’s mine. And I am his Princessa. His naughty Snow White.