Chapter 10 - The RebuildOne Year Later.
The courtroom was silent as the judge read the verdict.
"On the charge of murder in the first degree, we find the defendant, Sarah Evans, guilty."
I sat in the front row of the gallery. Sarah didn't look back at me. She stared blankly ahead, her face hollowed out and pale in her orange jumpsuit. Thomas had taken a plea deal, testifying against her to avoid the death penalty. He got thirty years. Sarah got life without the possibility of parole.
I walked out of the courthouse and took a deep breath of the crisp autumn air.
I had sold the house. I couldn't live there anymore, not with the memories of what had happened, not with the phantom sounds of a hammer in the night. I used the equity to buy a cabin out in the mountains, a quiet place where the nearest neighbor was miles away.
Leo, the tech who had recovered the footage, had been given a hefty reward from the city for his role in solving the murder. I made sure of it.
May you like
I got into my new truck and started the engine. The radio played a soft rock song. I wasn't the same man I was a year ago. I was sharper, colder, and infinitely more careful. But I was alive. I was free.
I drove out of the city, leaving the ghosts of Sarah and Thomas locked in their concrete cages, and headed toward the mountains. Toward peace.
