Chapter 9
Evelyn’s trial was three months later.
It lasted two weeks.
The mechanic testified.
The foundation accountants testified.
Clara’s best friend testified, reading the letters Clara had written her out loud to the whole courtroom.
Evelyn didn’t take the stand.
Her lawyer tried to say she was mentally ill, that she didn’t know what she was doing.
No one bought it.
The jury deliberated for four hours.
Guilty on all counts.
Manslaughter.
Embezzlement.
Witness tampering.
The judge sentenced her to 15 years in a maximum-security prison.
No parole.
When the gavel came down, I felt a weight lift off my shoulders so heavy I almost cried.
It was over.
Really over.
Daniel restructured the Hale Foundation a week later.
He donated $10 million to low-income healthcare programs, in Clara’s name.
Another $10 million to domestic workers’ rights, to help people like me, who’d been abused and underpaid and taken advantage of by people with money and power.
He gave every single maid, gardener, cook, and staff member in the mansion a 50% raise, and full health insurance for their families.
“Clara would have wanted that,” he said, when he told me. “She always said the people who take care of us deserve to be taken care of too.”
Mom’s surgery was a success.
She was out of the hospital in a week, stronger every day, back in her garden, planting more roses than ever.
Ethan started first grade that fall.
He was so excited he wore his backpack to bed for three nights straight.
He made friends on the first day, came home chattering about a boy named Javi who loved dinosaurs just as much as he did.
The night after his first day of school, we were sitting at the dinner table, eating tacos, when Ethan put his fork down, looking serious.
“Daddy?” he said.
Daniel looked up, smiling.
“Yeah, buddy?”
“When are you gonna ask Mama to marry you?”
I choked on my taco.
Daniel started laughing, so hard he had to wipe his eyes.
Ethan frowned, crossing his arms.
“It’s not funny,” he said, indignant. “All the other kids have daddies and mamas who are married. I want you to marry Mama. So she’s my mama forever. So she never leaves again.”
Daniel looked at me, his eyes warm, smiling soft.
“Well,” he said, reaching across the table, taking my hand. “That depends on your mama.”
He stood up, walking around the table, kneeling down next to me, pulling a small velvet box out of his pocket.
I gasped.
“I was gonna wait,” he said, grinning. “Do this properly, on a trip, with candles and all that. But I guess someone couldn’t wait.”
He opened the box.
Inside was a ring.
Simple.
Beautiful.
A small diamond set in a thin gold band.
“I love you,” he said, quiet, just for me. “I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want to wake up next to you every morning. I want to watch our kids grow up. I want all of it. With you. Will you marry me?”
I was crying so hard I could barely see.
Ethan was bouncing in his chair, yelling “Say yes! Say yes! Say yes!” at the top of his lungs.
I nodded, laughing through my tears.
“Yes,” I said. “A thousand times yes.”
Daniel slipped the ring on my finger, standing up, pulling me into his arms, kissing me while Ethan cheered.
It wasn’t fancy.
It wasn’t perfect.
May you like
It was ours.
And it was the best night of my life.
