Her voice was weaker now.
“A baby. At his age.”
“He wrote this before I knew.”
“Convenient.”
“He knew before I did.”
I placed the letter on the desk.
“Look at the date.”
The attorney quietly moved it toward her.
Marlene did not touch it.
Her brothers looked down.
And for the first time, I saw something other than hostility in Marlene’s face.
Fear.
Because the version of me she had created in her mind was beginning to collapse.
Part 9 — Exactly What I Deserved
I left the lawyer’s office carrying the wooden box against my chest.
No one tried to stop me.
Outside, rain had begun to fall.
The smell hit me immediately.
Wet pavement.
Cold air.
The same smell that used to enter through the broken window of my apartment.
I stood beneath the building awning, holding Russell’s letter.
I had expected victory to feel different.
