“It might not be over, Mom. They’ve paid people off before. What if they find a way to run from the law again?”
“They won’t, not this time. Mayleen recorded everything they said to you on that ranch, and she found other evidence during her searches around the house that will help send them to prison. People like Alex never change. I always knew that one day he would be caught. I was right.”
After hearing everything she had to say, I’m suddenly very tired and very sad. Instead of sleeping, I fall into a deep, dark depression.
Chapter 36
Past
It had taken a lot of practice, but I finally mastered the art of blocking out the world around me, shutting people’s words out so they didn’t get a chance to hurt me.
I didn’t want to come to court, but my mother wanted me to be present on the day the verdict would be read. She wanted us to stand together as a family.
When my gaze moved to the back of my father’s neck, an ache bloomed in my chest and spread like wildfire to the rest of my body.
When I was little and my father carried me, I used to wrap my little arms around that same neck, holding on tight so I didn’t fall. When I wasn’t strong enough to keep my body from sliding down his, he tightened his grip around me.
I wished he could hold me now, but I had to wait until he was released.
My father was on trial for murder, but even though the world stood against him, his broad shoulders remained straight and his head was held high.
He was innocent. I didn’t need a judge to tell me that.The truth would come out into the open.
My dad would come home with us. We’d go fishing every Saturday like we always did. He would sit with us at the dinner table and tell me stories from his childhood. One day, he would walk me down the aisle. I’d get to wrap my arms around his neck again during our father-daughter dance.
The bored judge straightened his slumped shoulders and spoke, but I was still hesitant to let down my guard. I kept his words distant from my ears. I hoped that in a few minutes, my father would turn to look at me with a smile of victory on his face.
The judge’s lips continued to move and his eyes remained trained on my father. His decision would make or break our family.
Even if I wanted to hear what he was saying, I wouldn’t be able to because of the loud thudding of my heart in my ears, the sound that vibrated through my entire body.
I held my breath and counted the heartbeats until the gavel fell. It sounded like a crack of thunder in the distance.
My father’s reaction was not what I got to see first. My mother delivered the news as she slid from her chair and fell to her knees, her hands covering her head.
Her crying was loud enough to pierce the bubble I’d put around myself.
With nothing left to shield me, noise exploded around me. Some people cried, some cheered.
If I closed my eyes, it would not be hard to imagine I was in a football stadium, to pretend that one team had won and another had lost.
I couldn’t make out yet whether my mother was weeping from relief or crushing disappointment.
I waited for my father to turn around, to look at me, to assure me we were on the winning side.
When he did, the sparkle of tears in his dark eyes said it all. The smile on his face could not erase the sadness.
It was over. He was going to prison for the rest of his life.
“Thank God,” a woman said from my right. “A murderer is off the streets.”
My eyes filled with tears as I watched my father get to his feet. Even when the guards led him away, he didn’t take his eyes off me. His smile was intended to tell me that everything would be okay.
It was all a lie.
He would not join us for dinner. He would not walk me down the aisle. He would not dance with me on my wedding day.
He was a cold-blooded murderer. That’s what they called him since his arrest. Now it had been confirmed.
