Chapter 6
The prosecution’s rebuttal witness was the last person anyone expected.
A man named Tyler Reed.
Ethan’s former best friend from high school.
He’d reached out to Detective Miller two days earlier, after seeing the trial on the news.
Said he’d carried a secret for 15 years.
Said he couldn’t keep it anymore.
He walked to the stand, his face pale, and refused to look at Ethan as he swore in.
The prosecutor asked him why he was there.
“Ethan and I were inseparable in high school,” he said, his voice low.
“We did everything together. The night Lila Marlow died? I was with him. We were supposed to go to a party. But he said he had to stop at Lila’s house first. Said he needed to ‘teach her a lesson’ for breaking up with him the week before.”
The courtroom went dead silent.
Ethan sat up straight in his chair, his face turning bright red.
“I told him not to go,” Tyler continued.
“I said it was a bad idea. But he was mad. Real mad. He had a bottle of saline solution with him. Said he was going to swap her inhaler. Said she’d have an attack, learn her lesson, be fine. I waited in the car. He came out 10 minutes later, laughing. Said it was done. The next day, we heard she was dead. He told me if I ever told anyone, he’d say I helped him. I was 17. I was scared. I didn’t say anything. For 15 years. I saw him on the news last week. Saw he did it again. To a five-year-old boy. I couldn’t let him get away with it twice.”
Tyler stepped down.
The jury stared at Ethan, their faces hard with disgust.
Ethan’s lawyer didn’t even stand to cross-examine him.
She knew there was no coming back from that.
The closing arguments were given that afternoon.
The prosecutor spoke first.
She reminded the jury of every piece of evidence.
The saline.
The sedative.
The journal.
Jake’s testimony.
Tyler’s confession.
Lila’s death.
Leo’s narrow escape.
“Ethan Carter had 15 years to feel remorse for killing Lila Marlow,” she said.
“15 years to turn himself in. To make amends. Instead, he planned to do it again. To a little boy who called him Daddy. Who trusted him. Who loved him. There is only one just verdict here today. Guilty. On all counts.”
Ethan’s lawyer gave a weak closing.
Mumbled something about reasonable doubt.
About how Tyler was lying to get attention.
No one was listening.
Not even her own client.
Ethan sat staring at the table, his face blank, like he already knew it was over.
The jury retired to deliberate at 4 p.m.
We waited in the hallway outside the courtroom.
My mom held Leo on her lap, letting him play with a new dinosaur Jake had brought him.
Jake sat beside me, his arm around my shoulders, holding me tight.
Detective Miller stopped by, bringing us coffee, saying it wouldn’t take long.
“The evidence is too strong,” he said.
“They’ll be back before dinner.”
He was right.
The jury came back after two hours and 17 minutes.
I counted every minute.
Every second felt like an hour.
We filed back into the courtroom.
The judge asked the foreman if they’d reached a verdict.
The foreman stood, holding a piece of paper in his hand.
He looked right at Ethan.
“We have, Your Honor.”
“On the count of manslaughter in the first degree of Lila Marie Marlow, how do you find?”
“Guilty.”
A gasp went through the gallery.
Jake’s hand tightened on mine.
I saw his shoulders slump, like a weight he’d carried for 15 years had finally fallen off.
“On the count of attempted murder in the first degree of Leo James Carter, how do you find?”
“Guilty.”
I closed my eyes, tears streaming down my face.
He was guilty.
For both of them.
Finally.
“On the count of evidence tampering, how do you find?”
“Guilty.”
The judge thanked the jury, dismissed them, and set the sentencing date for four weeks later.
The bailiffs grabbed Ethan’s arms, pulling him to his feet.
He fought them for a second, screaming that it was a lie, that we’d all framed him.
They dragged him out of the courtroom, his shouts echoing down the hallway until the doors slammed shut behind him.
He was gone.
He was never coming back.
Jake pulled me into his arms, holding me so tight I could barely breathe.
He was crying too.
Quiet, shaking sobs into my hair.
“We did it,” he whispered.
“For Lila. For Leo. We did it.”
Leo ran over then, wrapping his little arms around both our legs.
“Is Daddy gone forever?” he asked, looking up at us with big, serious eyes.
Jake knelt down so he was eye level with him.
“Yeah, buddy,” he said, soft.
“He’s gone. He’s never going to hurt you again. I promise.”
Leo smiled, a big, gap-toothed grin, and hugged Jake’s neck.
“Good,” he said.
“Now can we go get ice cream?”
We all laughed through our tears.
For the first time in months, I felt light.
Like I could breathe again.
Ethan was gone.
Justice was done.
May you like
But I knew the healing was just beginning.
For all of us.
