Chapter 17
The verdict came on a rainy morning.
I thought of Anna’s crash.
Wet road.
Gray sky.
Lies waiting at home.
The jury filed in.
Evelyn sat straight.
Sloane looked bored.
Michael was not in the room.
He had already been sentenced under his plea.
Years.
Not enough.
Still years.
The foreperson stood.
Guilty.
Victor Sloane.
Conspiracy to commit murder.
Money laundering.
Judicial bribery.
Witness intimidation.
Guilty.
Evelyn Hart.
Conspiracy.
Child endangerment.
Attempted custodial interference.
Fraud.
Evidence tampering.
Murder conspiracy.
The room blurred.
Rebecca sobbed beside me.
I closed my eyes.
Anna.
We got them.
Sentencing came later.
Long prison terms.
Asset seizures.
Restitution.
The corrupt judge resigned before indictment, then was arrested anyway.
Grant Keller lost everything and entered prison.
The clinic director pleaded guilty.
The network that had nearly killed my daughter and had killed my wife finally began collapsing.
When I came home, Lily was waiting on the porch with Mrs. Alvarez.
She searched my face.
“Guilty?”
“Yes.”
“Grandma Evelyn too?”
“Yes.”
“And the bad money man?”
“Yes.”
She nodded.
Then she ran to me.
I lifted her carefully, though she was getting big.
She cried into my neck.
“Mommy knows?”
“I think so.”
“Is she safe now too?”
The question broke something tender in me.
“Yes,” I whispered. “Her truth is safe now.”
That night, we made Anna’s favorite pasta.
We burned the garlic.
Anna always burned it too and claimed it was flavor.
Lily laughed.
Rebecca cried.
I set an extra candle near Anna’s photo.
May you like
Not because she was gone.
Because she was still part of every room we saved.
