Chapter 18 - ELLEN’S ANSWER
I didn’t want Ellen anywhere near Cassandra.
Ellen insisted.
The meeting took place at the county detention center.
Glass between them.
Phones on each side.
I sat several feet behind Ellen.
Cassandra looked different.
No designer makeup.
No carefully styled hair.
No diamond earrings.
Just a beige uniform and tired eyes.
For several seconds, neither woman spoke.
Then Cassandra picked up the phone.
Ellen did the same.
“I’m sorry.”
Cassandra’s voice sounded small through the receiver.
Ellen studied her.
“For what?”
Cassandra blinked.
“For what happened.”
“What happened?”
Cassandra’s jaw tightened.
Ellen waited.
Finally Cassandra said, “For hitting you.”
“And?”
“For humiliating you.”
“And?”
Cassandra looked down.
“For convincing Michael that you were the enemy.”
Ellen nodded.
“And?”
Cassandra began crying.
“For using him.”
I watched Ellen carefully.
She wasn’t cruel.
But she refused to make the apology easy.
“Why did you slap me?”
Cassandra wiped her cheek.
“Because you weren’t afraid of me.”
Ellen looked surprised.
“You kept asking questions.”
“You kept noticing things.”
“And Michael listened to you even when he pretended he didn’t.”
She laughed bitterly.
“I hated that.”
“So you wanted him to choose you.”
“Yes.”
“And when he grabbed me?”
Cassandra closed her eyes.
“I knew I’d won.”
Michael would later hear those words.
They hurt him more than his criminal charges.
Ellen leaned closer to the glass.
“You didn’t win.”
Cassandra opened her eyes.
“You lost your marriage.”
“You lost your freedom.”
“You lost the future you were trying to steal.”
“And my son lost years of his life becoming someone he didn’t respect.”
Cassandra cried harder.
“I know.”
Ellen’s voice softened.
“But I came here to tell you something.”
I expected forgiveness.
That was who Ellen had always been.
But what she said was stronger.
“I hope you change.”
Cassandra stared at her.
“But I am not responsible for making you feel forgiven.”
My chest tightened.
“You will have to live with what you did whether I forgive you today, ten years from now, or never.”
Ellen placed one hand against the glass.
“My kindness is not permission to hurt me.”
Then she hung up the phone.
She stood.
And walked out.
Outside the detention center, she inhaled deeply.
“How do you feel?” I asked.
“Tired.”
“Do you forgive her?”
Ellen looked toward the sky.
“I don’t know.”
Then she smiled faintly.
“And for once, I’m okay not knowing.”
Cassandra eventually pleaded guilty to conspiracy, evidence tampering, fraud-related charges, and assault.
She received a prison sentence.
Michael received probation, restitution obligations, community service, and a suspended sentence conditioned on compliance.
Some people online said he deserved prison.
Others said he had been manipulated.
Neither side knew him.
The truth was less satisfying.
Michael was both manipulated and responsible.
Human beings often are.
A year passed.
Then another.
And slowly, our family became something different.
Not repaired.
Not restored.
Different.
But one final consequence remained.
The inheritance.
May you like
And on Michael’s thirty-fourth birthday, I asked him to meet me at the lake house.
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