"I went to the airport to pick up my wealthy brother. But then I froze when I saw my fiancé kissing my best friend right in the middle of the terminal. My brother squeezed my shoulder and said coldly: “Little sister, don't cry... Tomorrow, they'll lose everything.”

Eight months later.

The high-security visitor room at the State Penitentiary was cold, smelling faintly of bleach and cheap floor polish.

I sat on one side of the thick plexiglass window, wearing a crisp burgundy suit, sipping cold coffee.

On the other side of the glass, the door opened. Derek was led in by two guards, heavy chains binding his wrists and ankles.

In eight short months, he had aged ten years. His thick hair was thinning and unwashed, his skin sallow, his once-arrogant eyes sunken and hollowed by fear and stress.

He sat down, picking up the yellow phone handset with shaking hands. I lifted mine.

"Emily," Derek choked out, tears instantly brimming in his hollow eyes. "You came. Oh God, Emily... thank you for coming."

"I didn't come to visit you, Derek," I said calmly through the receiver. "I came because my legal team needed me to sign the final asset repossession documents in your presence."

"Emily, please!" Derek sobbed, pressing his trembling forehead against the cold glass. "It’s hell in here! I can’t survive this place! My lawyers say if you drop the civil damages claim, I could be eligible for parole in three years! Please, have mercy! I still love you! I think about you every single night!"

I looked at him, searching my heart for any lingering pain, anger, or resentment.

There was nothing. Just empty, quiet space.

"Do you know what happened to Clara last week?" I asked softly.

Derek sneered, a flash of bitterness crossing his face. "I don't care about that traitorous snake."

"She was sentenced to four years in a medium-security facility," I informed him coldly. "Her family disowned her. Her boutique firm was liquidated to pay back thirty percent of what she stole. She works in the prison laundry room now."

Derek swallowed hard, staring at me. "Emily... we made mistakes. We were foolish! But we were happy once, wasn't we? Remember our trip to Italy? Remember when we bought our first apartment?"

"I remember a gullible girl who trusted a thief," I replied smoothly. "And I feel sorry for her. But she doesn't exist anymore."

"Emily, don't leave me like this!" Derek wailed as I stood up, smoothing my jacket. "I’ll give you back every penny! I’ll work for you! Just get me out of here!"

"You'll serve every single day of your six-year sentence, Derek," I said, looking into his desperate eyes. "And when you get out, broke and ruined, you will watch me conquer the world from the very bottom of society."

I hung up the phone.

Derek pounded frantically on the glass, screaming my name, but his voice was muffled, deadened by the thick barrier. I turned my back on him and walked out the heavy steel doors into the bright, warm sunshine.