Chapter 10 — The Parents Who Chose Wrong
The hardest part wasn’t watching Preston fall.
I thought it would be.
For years, I imagined the moment when everyone finally saw him for who he really was.
I imagined feeling victorious.
I imagined feeling free.
But when it happened, all I felt was exhaustion.
Because Preston wasn’t the only person who betrayed me.
There were two others.
The people who gave me life.
My parents.
And now, for the first time, they had to answer for what they had done.
The investigation into my parents began quietly.
Unlike Preston, they didn’t have cameras following them.
They didn’t have reporters waiting outside their homes.
They weren’t famous.
They were just two people who had spent decades convincing themselves that silence was the same as innocence.
But Olivia knew better.
“Your parents are not being investigated for what Preston did alone,” she explained.
“They’re being investigated because they helped create the environment where he believed he could do anything.”
I sat across from her.
“What does that mean?”
She opened a folder.
“It means they protected him when they should have stopped him.”
The words were simple.
But they carried years of pain.
Three days later, my mother asked to meet.
Not at her house.
Not at some expensive restaurant where she could control the atmosphere.
A small coffee shop.
A neutral place.
I arrived first.
When she walked in, I almost didn’t recognize her.
Her perfectly styled hair was gone.
Her designer clothes were replaced with a simple coat.
For the first time, she looked like an ordinary woman.
Not the queen of the Rossi family.
Just my mother.
She sat across from me.
“Evelyn.”
I didn’t answer.
She looked down.
“I know you hate me.”
The old me would have rushed to deny it.
I would have comforted her.
I would have told her she was wrong.
But that version of me was gone.
“I don’t hate you.”
She looked surprised.
“I don’t have enough energy left to hate you.”
That hurt her more.
Good.
Not because I wanted revenge.
But because she needed to understand.
Pain ignored for years eventually becomes truth.
My mother took a shaky breath.
“I made mistakes.”
I stared at her.
“Mistakes?”
She closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
I leaned forward.
“Mom, mistakes are forgetting someone’s birthday.”
My voice lowered.
“Mistakes are saying the wrong thing.”
I looked directly at her.
“You watched your son destroy my life.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“I thought I was protecting him.”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“You were protecting yourself.”
She looked away.
Because that was the truth.
She wasn’t protecting Preston because she loved him.
She was protecting the image of being a perfect family.
A perfect mother.
A perfect household.
Even if the cost was me.
Then my father arrived.
He stood beside the table, looking uncomfortable.
My mother moved slightly.
“Sit.”
He did.
For several moments, none of us spoke.
Then my father said:
“I want to apologize.”
I looked at him.
“Why now?”
He looked confused.
“What?”
“Why now?”
My voice remained calm.
“Why apologize after everyone found out?”
He had no answer.
Because that was the question neither of them wanted to face.
Would they have apologized if Preston had won?
Would they have admitted anything if the cameras never existed?
No.
And we all knew it.
My father looked down.
“I failed you.”
The words were quiet.
But they were the first honest words he had ever given me.
I swallowed.
“Yes.”
A tear rolled down my mother’s cheek.
“I loved you.”
I looked at her.
“Then why didn’t you protect me?”
Silence.
The same silence.
The same answer.
Finally, she whispered:
“I was afraid.”
I nodded.
“I know.”
She looked surprised.
“You do?”
“Yes.”
I stood.
“I understand fear.”
I picked up my bag.
“But fear explains why someone makes a mistake.”
I looked at both of them.
“It doesn’t excuse twenty years of choices.”
That evening, I returned home.
Sophie was sitting on the floor drawing.
She looked up.
“Mommy?”
“Yes?”
“Are we okay now?”
I sat beside her.
“What do you mean?”
She held up her drawing.
It was our family.
Just me and her.
Two people holding hands beneath a bright yellow sun.
“Before, everyone was fighting.”
My heart broke.
Because children always notice more than adults think.
I hugged her.
“We’re okay.”
She smiled.
“Because we’re together?”
I nodded.
“Yes.”
And in that moment, I realized something.
For years, I thought family was defined by blood.
I was wrong.
Family was defined by who stayed.
Who protected you.
Who chose you when it mattered.
And Sophie had taught me something my parents never did.
Love wasn’t something you demanded.
It was something you proved.
The next morning, Olivia arrived with unexpected news.
“Preston wants a deal.”
I looked up.
“A deal?”
“Yes.”
“What kind?”
She placed a document on the table.
“He wants to avoid a full trial.”
I stared at the papers.
After everything.
After the lies.
The manipulation.
The pain.
“He wants forgiveness.”
Olivia shook her head.
“No.”
She looked at me.
“He wants escape.”
I understood immediately.
Preston wasn’t sorry.
He was afraid.
May you like
And for the first time in thirty years…
he was finally experiencing what it felt like to have no one save him.
