I still reach for a second coffee mug some mornings.
I still turn at certain sounds, expecting her to be there.
But now, when my sons ask about their mother, I can tell them the whole truth.
She was brave.
She was methodical.
She was terrified, and she kept going anyway.
She protected them.
And in the end, she won.
Not because the ending was fair.
It was not.
Not because justice returned what Marcus took.
It cannot.
She won because the record survived him.
And because one year after we thought her voice had been buried for good, we pulled open a wall and heard her speak again.
This time, everyone listened.
