My Husband The Judge Sentenced Me To Prison Chapter 13
Four years later.
Federal Penitentiary, visitation room.
Marcus sat in a loose-fitting prison jumpsuit, his once perfectly styled black hair now completely white.
He looked through the thick bulletproof glass at Leo.
Leo now worked as a stocker at a discount supermarket. The hands that once turned the pages of law books were now covered in calluses from moving cardboard boxes.
With a cybercrime-related offense on his record, he couldn’t even get a basic office job.
“Valerie had a complete breakdown in the women’s prison,” Leo said, his voice flat and lifeless. “She tried to hurt herself. They put her in solitary.”
Marcus was silent.
For four years, he had spent every day rereading the sticky notes Sarah had left, trying to find some trace of the warmth she used to have.
“Dad,” Leo suddenly looked up, a crazed desperation in his eyes. “I saw her on the news today. She’s become the most famous public interest lawyer in Oregon. Last week, she won a major class-action lawsuit against a multinational corporation… There was a tall man standing next to her, the local sheriff. She was smiling, Dad. She looked so happy… like she had never even known us.”
The hand holding the phone began to shake violently.
He had sentenced countless people in his courtroom, but in that moment, a single news photo had sentenced him to a lifetime of loneliness.
He closed his eyes, and for a second, he could almost smell the faint scent of steam from when Sarah used to iron his suits.
For power and greed, he had personally destroyed the woman who loved him most, and in doing so, he had destroyed his family’s future.
Just then, a legal news segment came on the TV in the corner of the room.
The camera showed Sarah standing in the bright Cannon Beach sunlight. A reporter asked her, “Ms. Sarah, as a survivor of a terrible injustice, what would you like to say to those who are still struggling in the dark?”
Sarah looked directly into the camera, her gaze clear and unwavering.
She didn’t mention her inmate husband or her traitorous son. She just smiled calmly.
“I’m no one’s shadow anymore. Justice may come late, but freedom is always on time.”
Marcus slammed the phone down and buried his face in his hands, finally breaking down into gut-wrenching sobs.
On the screen, Sarah had already turned, taken a young man’s hand, and was walking toward the vast, blue ocean.
The sun shone down, and the sound of the waves drowned out all regret.
[THE END]