My Mother’s Perfect AI Lied And Left Me For Dead Chapter 16
In the end, Mom pleaded guilty to child abuse and criminally negligent homicide. The judge sentenced her to ten years in prison.
On the day of her sentencing, she wore county jail scrubs. Large sections of her hair had turned white, and her face was gaunt. She no longer resembled the woman who had once stood under stage lights, speaking about the future of technology.
As the judge read the sentence, she stared toward the front of the courtroom, her expression blank.
Tears ran down her face. She kept repeating my nickname.
“Mo, Mom was wrong. I’m sorry.”
The bailiffs led her out. For many years to come, she would have to live in prison with what she had done.
After Dad finished with the case, he sold the apartment and quit his job at the architectural firm.
He took my ashes and left Austin, moving south to a small town on the Gulf Coast.
The winters there were mild. Children were always running along the shore, and the air smelled of salt and sun-warmed wood.
Dad placed my ashes in a small memorial garden facing the bay. He didn’t pretend that moving meant he could start over.
At the local community center and in parent support groups, he told my story. He also volunteered for a child-help hotline. Whenever anyone asked him why, he admitted that when his daughter needed him, he hadn’t opened the car door.
Again and again, he reminded parents to stop and check on their children first—to never put an app, a report card, or anyone else’s judgment ahead of a child saying they were in pain.
It was the only amends he had left to make.
Sometimes he would bring a bouquet of daisies, my favorite flower, to the memorial garden and sit on the bench for a long time. He’d tell me what happened by the sea that day and apologize for all the things it was too late to do.