CHAPTER 4 — The Courtroom
The trial began four months later.
The courtroom fell silent as the security footage played.
No one looked away.
Jurors wiped tears from their faces.
My mother never cried.
She simply insisted she had been "teaching discipline."
The prosecutor stood.
"You assaulted a woman in her third trimester."
"You endangered an unborn child."
"You manipulated your own son into doubting the victim."
The defense collapsed.
Then came Megan.
She walked slowly with a cane.
Still healing.
Still carrying invisible scars.
But she stood taller than anyone else in that room.
"I stayed silent," she said.
"Because Jake loved his mother."
"I thought if I told him, I'd destroy his family."
She turned toward me.
"I never realized...
...I was already living with the person destroying it."
The jury returned after only two hours.
Guilty.
On every count.
As deputies placed handcuffs on my mother, she looked at me one final time.
"You chose her over me."
I answered quietly.
May you like
"No."
"I chose the truth."
