Chapter 146: Justice

Detective Morrison showed up at the penthouse thirty minutes later. Tall, thin, silver hair. Thick manila file folder underarm.

“I apologize for the late hour. But this couldn’t wait.”

They sat in the living room. Lily had insisted on being there when Rowan asked if she wanted to wait in the car.

“It’s my accident. I deserve to know.”

Detective Morrison flipped open the folder. “The driver who hit you, Catherine Harrington—“

“We know.” Rowan held up a hand. “She’s David’s wife. Lily’s stepmother.”

“Right. We’ve been looking into the accident. We’ve uncovered some discrepancies.”

“What kind of discrepancies?”

“Mrs. Harrington claims someone ran a red light and hit her. But according to traffic camera footage, a different story transpired.”

He extracted stills from the footage. The intersection. The time. The cars.

“No one ran the red light. Mrs. Harrington had the red. She drove through it.”

Rowan’s blood ran cold. “She caused the accident?”

“It appears that way. And there’s more. Her phone records show she was texting when she entered the intersection. Driving while distracted.”

“She lied,” Lily said quietly. “She blamed the other driver but it was her fault.”

“The other driver suffered some minor injuries. He’s filed charges. Reckless endangerment. Causing serious bodily harm. Mrs. Harrington could be looking at jail time.”

Rowan and Lily sat in a stunned silence when the detective left.

“She lied to my face,” Lily finally said. “Cried about how she tried to protect me. But she was texting. She wasn’t even paying attention to the road.”

“I’m so sorry, baby.”

“My amnesia—my whole life being wiped out—was because she was texting?” Lily’s voice broke. “Something that stupid? That preventable?”

“I want to talk to her. I want to hear her explain this to me.”

“That’s not a good idea.”

“I don’t care. I need to hear it from her.”

David called an hour later. “The police told me. I’m so sorry. I had no idea Catherine lied.”

“We need to talk. All of us. Including Catherine.”

They scheduled a meeting for the next evening at the Harrington house.

The drive to Connecticut felt like it took forever. Lily stared out the window, jaw clenched.

Catherine opened the door looking ashen. Eyes puffy. Hair unbrushed.

“I’m sorry,” Catherine said the moment she saw them.

“Don’t apologize to me,” Lily said icily. “Explain. Tell me why you lied.”

They all sat in the living room. David, Hannah, Michael, James present.

“I panicked,” Catherine said. “After the accident. I knew I’d been on my phone. Knew I’d caused it. And I just—I couldn’t admit it.”

“So you blamed an innocent person?”

“I know. It was wrong.”

“You’ve been sick over it? I lost my memory! My entire identity! Because you were texting!”

Catherine began crying. “I know. There’s nothing I can say that makes it better.”

“Then don’t say anything. Just tell me the truth. What were you texting about that was so important?”

Catherine looked at David. He nodded, defeated.

“I was texting my divorce attorney. Scheduling a meeting to talk about leaving David. The text came through and I looked down and—” She stopped. “And then the crash.”

Silence settled over the room.

Hannah was the first to break it. “You were leaving us?”

“I was unhappy. Had been for years. The revelation about Lily—it broke something in me.”

“So you were texting your lawyer about leaving my father,” Lily said slowly. “While driving me somewhere. And you caused an accident that destroyed my brain. Because of your divorce.”

“I know how it sounds—“

“Do you? My entire life, who I was—gone. Because of your marriage problems.”

“Lily, I am so sorry—“

“Stop apologizing!” Lily stood. “Sorry doesn’t give me back my memories. Sorry doesn’t undo the damage.”

Rowan rose too. “We’re leaving.”

Lily sat in the car for twenty minutes before she started laughing. Bitter, broken laughter.

“All of this. Everything I’ve been through. Because someone was texting. It’s so stupid. So pointless.”

“It doesn’t feel pointless,” Rowan said. “It feels cruel.”

“It is cruel. Bad things happen for stupid reasons and we’re supposed to just—what? Move on?”

“You don’t have to forgive her.”

“Good. Because I won’t.”

Emma was waiting for them when they got home. “What happened?”

Lily told her the whole story.

Emma’s face whitened. “She destroyed you because of a text message?”

“Basically.”

“I hate her.”

“Me too.”

That night Rowan found Lily on the terrace.

“How are you processing this?”

“I don’t know. Part of me wants justice. Part of me just wants to move on.”

“Both are valid.”

“What would you do? If someone had caused your accident?”

Rowan considered it. “Three years ago, I would have wanted revenge. Now? Maybe I’d want them to live with that guilt.”

“She already lives with guilt. She looks destroyed.”

“Does that make you feel better?”

“No. Nothing makes me feel better. My memories are still gone. Her suffering doesn’t fix that.”

“So what do you want?”

Lily looked at the city lights. “I want to stop thinking about her. Stop giving her space in my head. She took enough. She doesn’t get any more.”

“That’s very wise.”

“Or very practical. I have an art exhibition in two days. I need to focus on that. On my future. Not on her mistakes.”

“Can you do that? Just move on?”

“I don’t have a choice. The amnesia already happened. Hating her won’t change it.”

Rowan marveled at her daughter’s strength. Fourteen years old and already possessed of an understanding many adults never achieved.

“I’m proud of you.”

“For what? For surviving something I didn’t choose?”

“For choosing who you want to be despite it.”

Lily leaned against her. “I learned from the best.”

Two days later Catherine was formally charged. The trial was set for three months out.

David called to ask if Lily wanted to testify.

“Do you want to?” Rowan asked.

“No. I just want it to be over.”

“Then we’ll tell them no.”

The prosecutor was not happy. But Lily was adamant. She didn’t need to face Catherine in a court of law. She already knew the truth. Catherine had been negligent. And Lily had paid the price.

But she refused to keep paying.

The art exhibition was tomorrow.

Time to focus on that.

Time to move forward.