“Babe, are you okay?” Cole stroked my hand.
“I’m fine. What happened? I didn’t hear!”
Mum sobbed and smiled. “Life, Oakley. Life. He will never hurt anyone again.”
My jaw went slack. My father had just received a life sentence.
Dazed, I slumped into Mum’s arms, and she hugged me like she was afraid.
How would he cope in prison? Why did I even care? I didn’t. I hoped he hated every second. I hoped he was as scared a I was.
I pulled back from Mum and looked down at him again, a slither of satisfaction settling in my stomach as his eyes rounded in shock.
He was petrified.
Him.
It filled something inside me—soothed a part of me I thought could never be healed.
As he was being led away to start serving his sentence, he looked up. Our eyes met, and there was nothing. No remorse.
I gritted my teeth. My heart thumped at a hundred miles an hour, and I wanted to run, but I held his gaze, refusing to back down.
Fuck. You.
Mum and Jasper both put their arms around me. The last image he would have of his family would be of us standing strong together, watching him being hauled away.
Goodbye, Dad. I hope you spend the rest of your life afraid.
“Honey?” Mum whispered.
“It’s okay now, Mum,” I whispered back. “We’re going to be okay.”
“Of course, we are. I love you. Let’s get out of here. I need to take you home.”
I nodded, reaching out to take Cole’s outstretched hand. “I’m ready to go.” This wasn’t the last time I’d have to be here, but I still wanted to get the hell out.
“I knew that prick was going down,” Jasper said, throwing his arm around my shoulder as we left the courthouse. “Did you see his face? I wish I’d taken a picture.”
“Jasper…” I arched my brow at him. “It’s okay to feel shitty about it as well as relieved.”
“Just relief here, baby sis. Fuck him.”
“Language, Jasper,” Mum scolded. She had tears in her eyes, but they weren’t for her ex-husband.
“I’ll drive,” Cole said.
He’d been pretty quiet, and I knew he held a lot in. I hated that he suffered while trying to protect me. I had to make that right.
Back at Ali’s, I went up to Lizzie’s room for a few minutes to clear my head. Or to change, as I’d told the others.
Downstairs, a celebration had started, and I got it. It was a fresh start. Time to start putting it behind us.
Only shit like that followed you… even if you moved halfway around the world.
I sat on the futon and tried to rifle through a list of emotions. What was I feeling? Letting him go felt as if a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I no longer had a dad, but that was good because I no longer had an evil one.
I was happy that it was over, glad that he was gone, but… sad. I wished that things could’ve been different.
