"When?"
"A week ago."
"Is the victim okay?"
"As okay as she can be. She's pressing charges. There are other victims too. The prosecutor thinks he'll get decades."
Nacho's arms wrap around her from behind, his chin resting on top of her head.
He says simply. "Good. That's exactly where he belongs."
Jessica leans into him. Into all of us.
"Can we just not talk about this for a while? I want to think about anything else. Literally anything else."
Carlos asks. "What do you want to do?"
"Order takeout. Watch something stupid on TV. Be with my pack, and my best friend.”
I press a kiss to her forehead. "We can do that."
Sergio arrives twenty minutes later. We fill him in quietly while Jessica updates Stacey upstairs. His face goes hard when we tell him about the arrest, about the other victims, about Sandra's visit.
He says. "How long?"
"Decades. Maybe more."
His voice is flat. "Not enough. It'll never be enough for what he did."
I agree. "No. But it's something. It's justice."
We spend the evening in the living room. Eating Thai food straight from the containers. Watching terrible reality TV. Touching Jessica constantly, reassuring ourselves that she's safe, and Stacey telling jokes.
Jessica falls asleep around ten, curled between Sergio and Nacho, one hand fisted in Carlos's shirt. Stacey refills her wine glass and heads to bed upstairs.
I watch her breathe. Study the peace on her face. The trust in her body language. Medical observations. Patient at rest. Heart rate normal. Breathing deep and even. No signs of distress.
Callum is in a cell in New York. Facing decades in prison. His life is over.
And Jessica's is just beginning.
That's the justice that matters most.
41
JESSICA
Three Months Later – March
The home office Carlos built for me smells like fresh paint and possibility.
I'm sitting at my beautiful reclaimed wood desk that Carlos made himself, complete with hidden compartments for cables and a built-in charging station.
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The logo still makes my heart skip. A simple design with elegant script, and a small decorative flourish. My fresh start.
My phone buzzes. Sharon's contact photo lights up the screen.
