“Even if it costs me you?”
“Especially then.”
He nodded.
That was not forgiveness.
But it was the first stone in the bridge back to each other.
Melanie changed too.
She testified against our parents.
She surrendered every asset purchased with stolen money.
She spent hours with investigators, identifying accounts, forged documents, and Virex contacts.
One night, I found her standing before a mirror, staring at her own reflection.
“I spent my whole life trying to be prettier than you,” she said.
I leaned against the doorway.
“You usually were.”
She laughed softly.
“No. I was only louder.”
Then her expression broke.
“Why did you save me?”
“Because I remembered who you were before they taught you to hate me.”
She covered her face.
I crossed the room and held her.
For the first time in years, my sister cried in my arms.
Six months later, the trials began.
My father blamed my mother.
My mother blamed Virex.
Both blamed Melanie.
Neither apologized to me.
The jury convicted them on every major count.
My father received thirty-eight years.
My mother received life imprisonment for conspiracy in Grandpa’s death and the attempted murder of her own daughter.
Dr. Vale was sentenced under federal law after thousands of documents exposed decades of illegal human experimentation.
When the judge asked whether I wished to speak, I stood before the courtroom with a faint scar beside my left eye.
“My family believed disfiguring my face would destroy my future,” I said.
I looked directly at my parents.
