The visiting room at the county correctional facility was cold and sterile, smelling strongly of industrial floor cleaner and stale coffee.
Jason sat behind the clear glass partition, wearing an orange jumpsuit. His hair was messy, and the stubble on his chin was thick and graying after a week without his personal grooming team.
Evelyn sat down on the small metal stool on the other side of the glass, picking up the black telephone receiver with steady hands.
Jason picked up his receiver instantly, his face pressed close against the glass.
Jason: Mother! Thank God you came! Did you bring the bail check?!
Evelyn: I didn't bring any checks, Jason.
Jason: What do you mean?! I've been in this disgusting place for four days! I'm sleeping on a metal cot!
Evelyn: You are where you belong, son.
Jason: Mother, please! I'm your son! Your firstborn!
Evelyn: Being my firstborn didn't stop you from stealing from your sister. It didn't stop you from bleeding her forehead onto my dining room floor.
Jason: It was an accident! I lost my temper!
Evelyn: You didn't lose your temper when you forged your father's seal fourteen months ago, Jason. That was calculated, cold-blooded theft.
Jason: I was going to put the money back! I had a trade strategy that was guaranteed to double the investment!
Evelyn: You sound like a gambling addict, Jason. A pathetic, greedy gambling addict.
Jason: Don't talk to me like that! I built the regional expansion project!
Evelyn: Your father built the company. You just rode on his coat tails and thought you were untouchable.
Jason: If you leave me in here, the press is going to drag the Sterling name through the mud!
Evelyn: The press already knows, Jason. Your father issued an official statement to the business wire yesterday announcing your termination and indictment.
Jason stared at her in total disbelief, his hand slipping down the glass window.
Jason: Dad... Dad put out a press release about my arrest?
Evelyn: Yes. Because honor matters to your father. Truth matters to this family.
Jason: You're destroying my life...
Evelyn: You destroyed your own life the second you chose money over the people who loved you.
Jason: Mother, please... don't leave me here! I'm scared!
Evelyn: You should be scared, Jason. Because when you get out in six or seven years, you won't have a single penny of Sterling money waiting for you.
Evelyn hung up the phone receiver, setting it neatly onto the metal cradle. She stood up from the stool, fixing the collar of her coat without looking at her son's frantic pounding against the glass.
She turned her back on him and walked out through the heavy steel door into the bright daylight, leaving the ghost of her son behind in the cold gray room.