Chapter 17 - What Ivy Deserved
Owen found Ivy sitting beneath the classroom piano, knees tucked to her chest. The teacher had cleared the room and left the door open. He sat on the floor outside the piano bench without reaching for her.
"They said Daddy set the fire," she whispered. "They said Aunt Natalie only wanted to help me because I'm trouble."
"People say cruel things when they're scared or when they don't know the facts."
"Was she going to send me away?"
He thought of the easy lie. "She tried to arrange it. I won't let it happen."
"Would you have signed it if she asked?"
He felt the question cut deeper than any headline. "I don't know what I would have done if she gave me a good-sounding lie. I know what I'll do now. I'll listen to you first. And I'll ask questions when something feels wrong."
Ivy crawled out and leaned against his side. They sat in silence until the afternoon bell rang.
That night Owen wrote a statement asking reporters not to identify or contact Ivy. He didn't post her testimony or the raw wedding video. Priya also contacted the station about the identifiable image and asked the school to enforce its visitor rules.
Talia asked to speak with the press instead. The first question at the courthouse steps was whether she now believed Adam was innocent. She looked down at a photograph of Victor she was carrying.
"I believed the verdict because I wanted someone to answer for my father's death," she said. "Now I believe the facts must be examined again. The person who died wasn't a symbol in somebody else's fight. He was a man who loved bad jokes and practiced trumpet with children after work. If a company locked his exit and silenced his alarm, tell the whole city."
A reporter asked whether she blamed Natalie. Talia held the man's gaze. "I blame every adult who had a chance to save him, or tell the truth afterward, and chose comfort instead."
Owen watched from the back of the crowd. Talia's words gave him no easy forgiveness. They gave him something better: a way to honor both men without pretending one loss canceled the other.
As she stepped away, Collins walked toward Priya with her phone still in her hand. "Bell has been taken into custody on an evidence-tampering warrant," she said. "He asked for counsel. But he also told us where Martin kept the missing dispatch file."
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"Where?" Priya asked.
"In the records vault of the same office that handled Adam's prosecution."
