Chapter 18
Justice sounded like one word repeated until a room could breathe.
Guilty.
Guilty.
Guilty.
Victor received life without parole.
Patricia received twenty years.
Harrison received ten for obstruction and conspiracy after cooperation.
Marcus received twenty-five.
Others fell after them.
Lawyers.
Doctors.
Former officers.
Every person who helped the Vances turn family into a weapon.
After sentencing, Dad and I drove to my mother’s grave.
I carried Lily.
The stone had been cleaned.
Rebecca Lane.
Beloved wife.
Beloved mother.
For years, those words had felt too small.
Now they felt like a beginning.
Dad placed fresh flowers down.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
I took his hand.
“You saved me.”
“I couldn’t save her.”
“No,” I said. “But you loved her daughter.”
He cried then.
Hard.
I held him with one arm while Lily slept between us.
Later, we went home.
Not to the house Marcus had filled with fear.
I sold that.
I bought a small place near Dad.
Bright kitchen.
Wide windows.
Locks that made me feel safe, not trapped.
Sarah helped me start the Rebecca Lane Fund for survivors whose abusers used courts, money, or family power against them.
Judge Reed joined the board after retiring.
Detective Ellis trained advocates.
Dad fixed the old building’s furnace for free.
May you like
He complained the whole time.
That was how I knew he was happy.
