Chapter 18 - A Voice That Came Back
Claire's statement took two afternoons to prepare. She remembered the cold air outside St. Agnes, Emma's hand inside hers, and Mallory shouting about the cross. She remembered turning to shield her daughter. After that, there was a blank place where a week of her life should have been.
"Don't fill in the blank for me," she told Daniel. "I want to be honest about what I know and what I don't."
At a hearing months later, she sat with a cane beside the witness table. Her recovery wasn't neat. She was learning to live inside a body that no longer obeyed her without argument.
Mallory sat opposite her with her lawyer. She had stopped wearing the red contact lenses and the glittering dresses. Claire spoke clearly. "She saw my daughter in my arms. She threw the pot anyway. I used to think family meant a person would never choose to hurt you. I know better now."
Mallory looked down.
Daniel also answered for his own conduct. He had entered a plea in the separate assault case, accepted court-ordered counseling and community service, and apologized in writing for striking his sister. None of it excused her attack on Claire. None of her actions excused his.
Afterward, Emma asked why Daddy had to help clean the public park every Saturday.
"Because I hurt someone when I was angry," he explained. "And grown-ups have to make things right too."
She considered this. "Even if they were mean first?"
"Especially then. Otherwise anger gets to make every decision."
That night, Claire received a notice that the criminal proceedings against Mallory were nearing a resolution. Attached was a request from her sister-in-law to speak privately before sentencing.
May you like
Claire read it once, then set it face down.
"I don't know if I can listen," she said.
