Chapter 18 - The Truth Under Oath
"Yes," I told Owen. "And you won't be asked to love anybody on a schedule."
He climbed into my lap, though he was almost too big for it. For a long time we sat among the cardboard buildings and said nothing.
The months that followed were not a montage of easy justice. Investigators interviewed workers. Accountants traced deposits. The charity's board reviewed my firm's contract. I spent weekends correcting procedures I should have put in place years earlier. I also took Owen to a counselor who helped him talk about the wedding without having to perform bravery for an audience.
By winter, Colin had admitted in a plea agreement to participating in invoice fraud and document falsification. Brielle faced separate charges after investigators linked her administrator access, financial transfers, and messages to the scheme. Her attorney disputed several allegations. A court would decide what could be proved; the wedding video was only one part of the record.
At a hearing on the fraudulent inspection, Eli described the bolted exit and the pressure to change his checklist. He held his hands together until the questions stopped. I watched him walk out beside his sister, looking frightened but upright.
The county inspector testified that the supposed clearance number belonged to another property. Delia authenticated the costume insert work order. Even the original wedding photographer provided an uncut recording that showed exactly where Owen had touched the fabric, and that Brielle had not been physically injured.
When I finally gave my own statement, the judge asked whether I wanted to add anything.
"Only this," I said. "My son was wrong to use a pin. I told him so. But he was right to come to me with what he heard. I should have listened before he felt that was his only choice."
Outside the courthouse, a reporter asked whether I considered Owen a hero.
I looked toward Tara, waiting with him beneath the bare trees.
May you like
"I consider him a child," I said. "And my job is to let him be one."
As we left, Asha texted the latest cost estimate for Pine Hollow. Even with the stolen transfer frozen, the center might not have enough money to reopen at all.
