The final day of the trial starts out like the rest, but I know Liam met with his lawyers and told them to do whatever they could to win this case. For my own part, I have a plan to help make this easier for Sophie. We haven’t technically been allowed to talk to her during the week of the trial, but I managed to catch her in the women’s restroom alone. I asked her if she would trust me and pretend to be sick when Liam’s lawyers presented their cases today.

She saw through me right away and asked what I didn’t want her to hear. To my surprise though, she trusted me and agreed. I’m sure she won’t be protected from the full force of the truth forever, but it’s a small comfort to know she doesn’t have to hear it here, like this.

Liam’s team managed to have the emails “accidentally” forwarded from Julianne to Liam, which made them admissible evidence, even if the timing was unusually convenient, there wasn’t really anything they could do to prove it, so the evidence stood. The power of those emails rocked the jury. It was clear even from a glance.

If that wasn’t enough, they were able to get Linda McCroy to testify that Julianne was blackmailing her into twisting evidence against us. Apparently Julianne had made some kind of investment in Linda’s home fashion design business and Linda had blown the money in a few months, but Julianne refused to budge and forgive the debt unless Linda managed to get custody of Sophie taken from Liam.

In the span of a single day, the power shifted. It was clear from the faces of Julianne’s lawyers that they had lost, even before the final verdict was read the following day.

Not only was custody awarded back to Liam indefinitely, but formal charges were pressed against Julianne for blackmail, fraud, and reckless endangerment. According to Liam’s lawyers, whether the charges panned out or not, even being charged with such serious crimes would likely prevent Julianne from ever making a case for custody again.

Jake was also charged with aggravated assault and attempted murder. Linda McCroy was stripped of her position with child protective services as well, and the claims she made against Liam were removed from record.

Liam, Sophie, Roxanne, and I all sat in Liam’s cinema room with bowls of popcorn. Sophie’s legs are draped over mine, and mine are over Liam’s as we all sit back in the comfy chairs and watch the third Schwarzenegger movie of the night.

“You know,” says Sophie in a low whisper. “He has never liked a girl enough to show her his Schwarzenegger collection.”

I grin. “I’m honaaaahd” I croak in my best Schwarzenegger impression.

“Naht Baahhhd” says Liam in a perfect Arnold voice.

We all laugh, and it’s just one of countless moments that night and for the nights to come that make me stop and wonder how I got so lucky. Sophie pulls what must be a warm piece of lettuce from her pocket and feeds it to the small turtle in her lap. She winks at me when I look over to watch.

I smile, knowing I can never tell her how I literally had to get on my knees and beg her father to get her that turtle. I can’t tell her because I wasn’t begging with words, and I enjoyed the hell out of it. Over the weeks since the trial I’ve begun to wonder how I went so long without sex. Granted, Liam seems to have a mastery over his body and my own that I can’t imagine any other man possessing, so maybe I should rephrase. I’ve begun to wonder how I went so long without having sex with Liam.

More than that, I don’t know how I lived without him. It may sound melodramatic, but being with him has made me realize that I was a shell of a woman. I have everything I could ever want now. Even though Roxanne will always remind me of my mother, I’ve found an acceptance in her passing I never had before. She has moved on and she’s in a better place. I don’t know if I could really believe that until now, and I don’t know what flipped the switch. But I feel it with a rock-hard certainty.

Liam was also nice enough to give Donna a job cleaning his pool. Of course, she knows next to nothing about cleaning the pool, and he still pays for a professional service to come by once a week. In reality, it was just a way for him to give her money and give her an excuse to come over and spend time with me. Neither of us are complaining about the arrangement.

It makes me feel a little cruel to say, but I’m also immensely relieved to have learned that Jake wound up in prison. When they went to arrest him, he resisted and tried to stab one of the officers, which landed him an immediate sentence of fifteen years. When he stands trial for the other charges against him, he could end up in jail for the rest of his life, too.

Julianne was found guilty of all the charges against her, and is now serving a ten year sentence. It turns out her boy-toy, Pierre, was also embezzling money from her, which got him thrown behind bars too. For her part, Sophie is taking it all better than expected.

I pull her aside on a warm afternoon while we’re out by the pool, sitting down so our feet can be cooled by the water.

“You okay?” I ask.

“Yep,” says Sophie, who sets her turtle down and watches him scuttle into the water and start paddling around.

“I mean, like, are you okay with everything?

She shrugs. “Yep. I know daddy tried to protect me from seeing what Julianne was really like and what she thought of me, but I knew a long time ago. I think he wanted to fix her for me, but I never wanted that. Does that make me a bad person?” she asks with a sudden sincerity. “I didn’t want him to fix her. I didn’t want to forgive her. Not ever.”

“No,” I say carefully. “I think it’s your right to decide who you forgive and who you don’t. Sometimes people can really suck. You can think you know them and they can surprise you in the worst ways. When that happens, I think it’s okay to decide not to forgive them.”

“Are you talking about Jake, too?” she asks.

I laugh, surprised, as usual, by how perceptive she is for such a young girl. “Maybe, yeah. Maybe a little.”

“Thank you,” she says. “You’re always honest with me,” she says the last sweetly and casually, kicking her toes in the water and watching the waterfall trickle down the rocks leading to the pool. “Aubrey?” she asks.

“Yeah?”

“When you and daddy get married, would it be weird if I started calling you mom?”

Tears well in my eyes and a smile pulls at my mouth. I put my arm around her shoulder and she rests her head against me as I let the tears fall down my cheeks. “No, sweetie. I would love that.”