Lisa had not moved from the side of the bed.Her head was resting against the edge of the mattress and the sheet beneath her face was wet in a way she had not noticed until she finally lifted her head and saw it. She had been crying for longer than she realised. The crying that happened quietly and kept going after you thought it had stopped.She looked at Kyler’s face.Even in this state. Even lying here with machines beside him and tubes and the pallor of someone who had given most of themselves away on a garage floor. There was something on his face that had not left. A stillness that was not the stillness of defeat. More like someone who had finished what they set out to do and had made their peace with the cost of it.She thought about the things he used to say to her.She had always dismissed them. Filed them under stubbornness or naivety or the particular blindness of someone who had not yet been in the world long enough to understand how it actually worked.Looking at him now

The courtroom had never been this full. Judge Alvarez didn’t wait for the room to settle. She looked tired, the kind of tired that came from a case that had eaten months of her life, and when she finally spoke, her voice carried through the silence like a shot. “In the matter of the State versus Nathan Reeds — this court finds the defendant not guilty on all counts. The conviction is quashed, effective immediately.” For a second nobody moved. Then the gallery broke. Someone in the back started crying. A reporter dropped his pen. Nathan sat frozen at the defense table like the words hadn’t reached him yet, like his body was waiting for permission to believe it. Claire’s hand found his shoulder before he even turned around. “You’re free,” she said. “Nathan. You’re free.” He didn’t answer. He just closed his eyes. The judge let the noise run for a moment before she brought the gavel down again, sharp enough to cut through it. “Order. I’m not finished.” The room quiete