Chapter 58: The Last Visit
A few days before her execution was scheduled to happen, Melanie Chowdar was visited by her Mother and Father in law. She was resigned to her fate and was reluctant to speak to them.
The only small mercy that she had been afforded was that she had little or no contact with the prison officer named Dickinson. She had been bullied and beaten but no worse than she had anticipated. She couldn’t help but think of Todd and the treatment that he must have had to endure.
Aaron had escaped sanction but still visited her each day. She was grateful for his support but couldn’t help but wish for circumstances to be different.
“Melanie, we have some good news.” Mr Bing addressed her. “We’ve spoken to the authorities. They are willing to set you free as long as you submit this statement. Myself and your mother want you to put this chapter behind you. You can be a free woman. You’ve always had so much promise. All you have to do is sign it.” Her stepfather said as he pushed the piece of paper across the counter.
Reluctantly Melanie picked up the statement and read it.
“You want me to compromise my principles,” she addressed them with tears in her eyes. “You want me to renounce Todd.”
“Swallow your pride,” Melanie, Mr Bing replied. “You have the opportunity to rebuild your life. You are still young, attractive and talented. You have everything in front of you and you want to throw it away for a drunk you met in the street. Come on.”
“Yes Melanie,” her mother responded. “We want to see you home again. I know Max hasn’t given up on you.”
“You want me to call Todd a degenerate, in order to save my life. You want me to lie and say that he is an alien who cast me under his spell, just so that I can be free. Todd is no degenerate. His life isn’t worthless. When he was arrested he was helping people. He was doing great things. Todd may have done bad things in his life but he turned his life around when he was given a chance. I couldn’t care less about Max. I’m not going to renounce Todd just to save my own skin. I don’t want to die. I don’t want to spend time in prison but I’m not going to betray him.”
“Don’t be such a stupid little girl,” her Stepfather snapped back, “Nobility is only going to get you killed.”
Melanie had not seen this side of Howard before, his face red with anger and the veins in his neck protruding. It was clear that he had lost patience with her.
Melanie was defiant. “Obviously my values are different to yours, Howard,” Melanie declared in a much calmer tone. “You’re only wasting your time.”
There were tears in Sheryl Bing’s eyes. She too had lost patience. “Listen to your Father Melanie,” she pleaded. “He’s already done so much for you.”
“He’s not my Father,” Melanie responded in a cold manner. She said this deliberately to get them to leave her alone. Even the past few months were not enough for her to dislike her stepfather and forget everything else he had done for her. She just wanted to be allowed to do the right thing and didn’t want anyone else to interfere with that. She didn’t want to be a fraud. Maybe it was something she would regret seconds before she was due to be executed but for now her conscience was clear.
“Melanie, how could you say such a thing?” Sherrie responded.
Howard seemed to move his head backwards in disappointment.
“I just want to be left alone. You’ve made your position clear and so have I, so please just go away.”
Even Sherrie felt as though she was up against an impregnable fortress and nothing she could do would convince her daughter otherwise. She looked at her husband of more than twenty years and even he had lost the appetite for battle.
“I love you Melanie,” Sherrie responded in a change of tone. “I don’t want to lose you. Always remember that.”
The former lawyer didn’t respond but turned her head away ever so slightly.
“Come on Howard,” Sherrie said with her eyes fixed on her daughter, hoping for the slightest sign of weakness, “Let’s go.”
In a matter of seconds Melanie found herself alone once more. Shortly afterwards she could hear the sound of the nasty cold-hearted prison officer approaching as he rattled the steel bars with his baton.
When he reached Melanie’s cell he stopped and entered. “It looks like we won’t be missing you after all,” he said before opening unlocking the door. “Isn’t that just the best news. I bet you miss your mammy and your daddy and if you don’t you soon will,” he said before administering an electric shock to Melanie’s leg. “All you have to do is pick up the phone and call them, you changeling scum, but you won’t. That’s just great because it would spoil my fun,” he said with menace before administering another shock to Melanie other leg.
This wasn’t the first time that the sadistic prison guard had tortured her and unfortunately it wouldn’t be the last. There were six days left to her execution and part of her was looking forward to
it.