“I know.”
“I also remember waking up and telling you.”
Elena squeezed her fingers.
“That was the brave part.”
They walked down together slowly.
At the bottom, Sofia looked back at the place where fear had once taken over everything.
Then she adjusted the strap of her backpack and headed toward her classroom.
Elena watched her go.
Richard had believed money could decide whose pain mattered, whose truth survived, and which doors remained closed.
But a counselor had saved a memory card.
A frightened child had told her mother the truth.
A room full of powerful people had finally been forced to listen.
Elena closed the black leather wallet inside her handbag.
She no longer needed to display the badge.
The evidence had spoken for her.
