Even enraged, her blond hair was smooth and immaculate, and she had an expensive wool coat draped over her shoulders. She looked less like a grieving mother and more like someone attending a board meeting. Her gaze was sharp, nearly cutting me from across this crowded room. She was unhinged, bordering on delusional. As if she genuinely believed that this outcome belonged to her.
She was not a woman who accepted limits, and regardless of how things played out today, Phyllis was not finished.
“Ma’am, we have to ask you to please leave the room,” the male board member on the left said.
A guard strode toward her and grasped her arm, leading her out the door.
After the panel left the room to conference, Chloe pulled me into the hall. When there was no sign of Phyllis, she wrapped her arms around me and squeezed. “You did good.”
Thirty minutes later, we were called back into the room.
“We have reached our decision. The parole is denied,” the woman said firmly. “We came to this decision based on the record of continued threats, the demonstrated lack of remorse, and a credible fear for the safety of his victims.” She looked directly at Donny. “You will serve the remainder of your full sentence. A referral will be made to the district attorney to investigate and prosecute these documented violations of the protective order.”
The words landed slowly in my brain.
Parole denied.
Not postponed.
Not reconsidered.
Denied.
Donny was led out of the room in handcuffs.
The system had worked. It had done what it was supposed to do.
Relief hit me first, then anger. Why was I even here? How come, after three years, I’d been dragged back into this mess?
At least it was done with.
I didn’t owe him anything.
Not my future.
Not my past.
And definitely not my fear.
All I wanted to do was go home. I needed to hug my kids. Then I needed to talk to Josh.
Chloe and I walked out of the prison arm in arm, past the high walls and the barbed wire and toward the parking lot.
Where we found Phyllis waiting, a glare firmly fixed on her face.
I glared right back.
“You ruined his life,” she said as we walked past her. “You ruined my son.”
My heart took off, panic setting in. How was it that I could never get away from these horrible people?
“Eat shit, Phyllis,” Chloe spat, dragging me to my car.
She opened the driver’s door and stood beside it as I buckled my seat belt and started the engine.
“I love you,” she said. “Now go back to Vermont.”
Chapter 39
