Her daughter clung to her leg, peeking at me.
“I didn’t realize I was standing inside someone else’s ruin when I got together with Ron,” she said. “I was just finding my own way. I thought I’d found someone as haunted as me. He loved you, I can say that much. He named our daughter after you.”
“You weren’t the one who lied, Carla.”
“He loved you.”
She nodded slowly. “I’m filing a statement against him.. and for divorce. I won’t raise my daughter around this.”
She knelt down and reached for her little girl.
“Katie girl, this is Miss Katie,” she said.
My throat tightened as the little girl smiled at me.
“You’re not the problem here,” Carla said, smiling gently.
She nodded slowly.
For the first time in three years, I felt something loosen in my chest.
Ron and Marlene were charged within the week.
I didn’t celebrate or gloat; I just watched the truth unfold in a courtroom instead of a cemetery.
