Chapter 14 - Guilty
Victor Hale stood while the clerk read the counts.
Guilty.
Again.
Guilty.
Again.
Fraud.
Conspiracy.
Burglary.
Kidnapping.
Witness intimidation.
Corruption.
More charges than Violet could keep track of.
She stopped listening after the first few.
Harper cried quietly.
Rachel closed her eyes.
I felt something I hadn't expected.
Not triumph.
Relief.
Victor turned before deputies led him away.
For one moment, our eyes met.
Months earlier, I would have imagined crossing the courtroom.
Now I simply looked at him.
He had wanted fear.
He had wanted power.
He had wanted our family to become another collection of frightened people who kept his secrets.
Instead, Violet had put him in a courtroom.
That was enough.
Caleb's case was handled separately because of his age.
His cooperation reduced his sentence, but it didn't erase accountability.
Violet chose not to attend.
“I don't need to watch every consequence,” she said.
That might have been the wisest thing anyone in our family said all year.
Then came sentencing.
Victor received decades in federal prison.
Pike received prison time as well.
Several members of the network pleaded guilty.
Assets were seized.
Victims received compensation.
But Rachel had one final surprise.
Victor had hidden millions in accounts investigators hadn't found.
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She knew where they were.
And she wanted every dollar used for the families he had hurt.
