Chapter 7 - Breaking Chains
The jury deliberated for less than four hours.
When the verdict was read, there was no dramatic outburst from Linda. She simply stared straight ahead, a hollow shell of the controlling matriarch she had once been.
Guilty on two counts of attempted murder.
Guilty on two counts of unlawful imprisonment.
Guilty of felony child endangerment.
The judge showed absolutely no mercy at sentencing. He called their actions "a display of depravity unmatched in my thirty years on the bench."
Linda was sentenced to forty-five years in federal prison without the possibility of parole. Effectively a life sentence. Ashley, due to her testimony, received twelve years.
As the bailiffs came to cuff Linda and lead her away, she stopped and looked back at me. For a fleeting second, I saw a flicker of the mother who used to pack my lunches, the woman who used to bandage my scraped knees. But it was swallowed instantly by the monster she had become.
"Ethan," she rasped.
I didn't answer. I didn't step forward. I simply put my arm around Emily's waist, pulling her close. I turned my back on my mother and walked out of the courtroom, never looking back again.
That night, Emily and I sat on the porch of a new house. We had moved entirely. We left Columbus, Ohio behind, packing up our lives and relocating to a quiet, sunny neighborhood in North Carolina, near the ocean. I had taken a new job, one with strict hours and no overnight travel.
Noah, now almost a year old, was babbling happily in his playpen on the grass, chasing a golden retriever puppy we had adopted the month before. He was completely healthy, a vibrant, loud, joyous little boy with rosy cheeks and my wife's beautiful eyes.
Emily rested her head on my shoulder. She was still going to physical therapy, and she still had nightmares sometimes, but the shadows were lifting.
"We made it," she whispered, watching Noah laugh as the puppy licked his face.
I kissed the top of her head, breathing in the scent of her hair, feeling the steady, strong beat of her heart against my side.
"We did," I said. "And nobody is ever going to take this away from us."
May you like
The sun set over the horizon, painting the sky in brilliant hues of gold and orange. The nightmare was over. We had walked through the fire, and on the other side, we found our forever.
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