The Encore of Us novel · Chapter 24 of 24

Chapter 24: Christmas Eve

On Monday the twenty-second, a judge said the word vacated, and I walked out of the fourth-floor courtroom a free woman.

My parole officer was waiting in the corridor with her paper cup of almonds.

She handed me my file, thick as a phone book, and then, after a moment, a single almond.

"I'll miss Mondays," she said.

"I won't," I said, and we both laughed.

Rhea screamed in the stairwell.

She picked me up off the floor, and she did not put me down until a security guard asked her politely to stop.

That evening Tove sat at the lake house table with a crayon in her fist and a question on her face.

"Lin. Grandmother Teeth asked to see me."

"I know, bug."

"Do I have to?"

"No," I said. "Never. You get to decide, and whatever you say, I'll stand behind you."

She thought with her whole forehead.

"I'll go," she said. "But you sit next to me. And she has to say sorry first. To you."

The county attorney lent us a conference room the next morning.

Ingrid was already inside, in a plain gray coat, with a bare throat.

She stood when Tove came in, and she did not move any closer.

"Mrs. Brandvold," I said.

"Linnea."

She turned to me and spoke before Tove had even sat down.

"I let you serve seven years for what I did."

"I will say so to any court that asks."

"On the second of January I will plead guilty to failing to give aid, and I will ask for no bargain."

"Your lawyer must have begged you not to."

"He did. I told him I had been a fool for thirty years, and I'd like to be an honest one for the rest."

Her voice shook.

"I am sorry. I know it isn't enough."

"It isn't," I said. "I'm not forgiving you today."

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