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Upset, I dialed the police and they showed up to my door within minutes.
“Are you Liam Henderson?” They asked.
“Yes, I’m the one that called.”
I pulled the court order out of my pocket and explained what was happening, how Kevin was technically committing kidnapping, but they interrupted me.
They weren’t at my house to take a report.
They were there to give one.
As they calmly explained what had happened, how she was less than a block away when the car collided with a truck, my world stopped.
I asked which hospital she was being flown to, which route was the fastest to take, but the cops simply sighed and looked past me, as if they didn’t want to say anything further.
They didn’t have to.
Their looks said it all.
Emma’s funeral was held on a grey and wet day, another harsh blow to my chest. I sat through speeches from the few people she’d crossed paths with, from her young friends who had yet to fully comprehend what her death really meant.
My next door neighbor, a four year old named Hannah, said, “I hope you come back next week, Emma. You can come to my birthday party.”
I stared at the tiny casket as they lowered it into the ground, half of me wanting to jump in with it and risk being buried alive. At least then I wouldn’t have to feel anything anymore.
As the crowd dissipated one by one—tapping my shoulder and saying, “I’m so sorry for your loss,” as they left, I spotted Ava walking into the cemetery.
Flanked by two prison guards, she fell to her knees and bawled once she reached the uncovered grave.
“You made me late for my child’s funeral.” She cursed at the guards. “I f**king missed it…How cruel can you possibly be?”
“All furloughs have the same time constraints, ma’am,” one of them said flatly. “We couldn’t have left any earlier.”
She shook her head and continued to cry, beating her hands against the ground. As if she needed to distance herself from the guilt, she stood up and walked towards the podium, reading the papers that were left behind.
She broke down again and I walked over.
“Liam…” She held out her arms. “She’s really gone, isn’t she?”
“She is.” I refused to console her. “And it’s all your fault, Ava. Your f**king fault.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” She sniffled. “Don’t you think I feel that?”
“It should be you down there in the ground right now. It should be you.”
“Liam…”
“She didn’t deserve to be taken away from me and you know it.”
“I do know that…I was just—”
“Trying to prove a point? To do whatever it took to hurt me because you f**ked yourself over and you wanted to bring me down with you?”
“We can get through this…We can still find a way to restore your name in this city, and you’re the best lawyer I know so…I know you can turn everything around and maybe help me too. Maybe forgive me?”
“I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure you rot in prison, to make sure you never get out and that the parole board never gives you an ounce of sympathy.”
“You don’t mean that, Liam…”
