“I hope whatever time you have left is worth what you paid for it.” She walked out of the house. She didn’t look back. They drove in silence for 20 minutes before Jessica finally spoke. “Are you okay?” Margaret stared out the window at the desert at the endless brown landscape stretching toward the horizon. “No,” she said, “but I will be.” what she said back there about your mother, about the inheritance. You know that’s not your fault, right? You didn’t do anything wrong.
I know Margaret’s voice was quiet, but she’s right about one thing. I never thought about it. I never considered how it might have felt for her, watching me get everything while she got nothing. I was so busy being grateful that I never stopped to ask if it was fair. That doesn’t justify what she did. No, it doesn’t. Margaret turned to look at Jessica. But it explains it and I think I think I needed that. I needed to understand why.
And now that you do. Margaret was quiet for a long moment. Now I let it go. She said, “I spent 20 years in prison because I loved my sister more than I loved myself. I’m not going to spend the rest of my life hating her. She’s already taken enough from me.” Jessica reached over and squeezed Margaret’s hand. You’re a better person than I am, she said. I’d want her to suffer. She is suffering. She’s dying alone in a beautiful house full of things that can’t love her back.
That’s punishment enough. Margaret paused. Besides, I have something she’ll never have. What’s that? People who care about me. Real people. Not marks, not victims, not sources of money or status. Margaret smiled. A small, tired smile, but genuine. the Chens. You Marcus. I walked out of prison with nothing and somehow I ended up with more than Diane will ever have. Jessica was quiet for a moment. We’re going to get your conviction. Overturned. She finally said with her confession on tape, with all the evidence we’ve gathered, it’s going to happen.
Margaret, you’re going to be exonerated. I know. And we’re going to recover as much of your money as we can. Diane’s assets will be frozen. Her husband will probably file for divorce when he finds out who he really married. There’s going to be a lot of money to go around. I don’t care about the money. I know, but you deserve it anyway. Margaret nodded. She did deserve it after everything she’d been through. She deserved something good, but more than the money, more than the exoneration, more than anything else, she deserved peace.
The flight back to Tennessee felt different than the flight out. Margaret sat by the window again, watching the desert give way to plains. The plains give way to hills. The hills give way to the green forests of home. But this time, she wasn’t dreading what she’d find at the end of the journey. This time, she knew exactly what was waiting for her. Answers, closure, and the beginning of something new. Jessica worked on her laptop the whole flight.
Already drafting the petition for exoneration, already outlining the civil case against Diane, already building the legal framework that would give Margaret her life back, or at least what was left of it. The recording is solid, Jessica said, not looking up from her screen. Her confession is clear and unambiguous. Combined with the documentary evidence David gathered and Marcus’ investigation, we have more than enough to reopen your case. How long will it take? The exoneration. Normally, these things can drag on for years, but with a recorded confession from the actual perpetrator.
Jessica smiled grimly. I’m going to push for expedited review. 6 months, maybe less. 6 months. After 20 years, 6 months felt like nothing. like the blink of an eye. And Diane, Jessica’s expression hardened. That’s trickier. She’s dying. The Arizona authorities will file charges, but there’s a real possibility she won’t live long enough to stand trial. So, she gets away with it. No, Jessica shook her head firmly. She doesn’t get away with anything. Even if she dies before trial, her confession is public record.
Her husband is already being notified. Her assets are being frozen. Everything she built on your suffering is going to come crashing down around her. Margaret nodded slowly. It wasn’t the justice she’d imagined. Diane in handcuffs. Diane in a courtroom. Diane finally facing the consequences of what she’d done, but it was something. And maybe Margaret was starting to realize something was enough. They landed in Nashville just after sunset. David Chen was waiting for them at the airport, his face anxious until he saw them coming through the arrivals gate.
“How did it go?” he asked, pulling Margaret into a gentle hug. “Sarah’s been worried sick.” “She wanted to come, but the doctor said, “No flying this close to her due date. It went. It went.” Margaret didn’t have the words to describe what had happened in that house in Arizona. The confrontation, the confession, the final painful death of the hope she’d been carrying for 20 years. I got what I needed, she confessed to everything. We have it on tape.
David closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, they were bright with something that looked like relief. It’s over then. It’s really over. Not yet, Jessica said. We still have a lot of work to do, but the hard part is done. Margaret’s going to be exonerated. I’d stake my career on it. They drove back to Grover’s Mill in David’s car. The three of them quiet for most of the journey. Margaret watched the Tennessee landscape roll past, familiar now in a way it hadn’t been when she’d first come home.
The winding roads, the old barns, the church steeples rising above the trees. This was her home. It had always been her home. And no matter what Diane had done, no matter how much she’d stolen, she couldn’t take that away. Sarah was waiting on the porch when they pulled into the driveway, she was huge now, due any day, according to her doctor. But she came down the steps as fast as she could manage, her face wet with tears.
“You’re back,” she said, pulling Margaret into an awkward, belly obstructed hug. “Thank God you’re back. I’ve been going crazy waiting to hear what happened. I’m back, Margaret said. And I’m okay. Really? They went inside. Margaret sat at the kitchen table, her kitchen table in her house. Even if the furniture was different and the walls were painted colors, she never would have chosen. And she told them everything, the confrontation, the confession, the decades of resentment that had festered in Dian’s heart until it turned into something monstrous.
When she finished, Sarah was crying openly. David’s jaw was clenched so tight Margaret could see the muscles working. “She blamed you,” Sarah said, her voice thick with anger. “She destroyed your life because she was jealous of you, and she still found a way to make it your fault. That’s who she is,” Margaret said quietly. “That’s who she’s always been. I just didn’t see it. How could you? She was your sister. You loved her. I loved who I thought she was.
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