2026-05-31 21:37:33Lily's birthday party came and the party started at about 6:30am.
Literally because she came knocking in my room and when I didn't open up the door, she walked in on herself and tapped my shoulder. I looked at her. She was dressed in purple even though it wasn't in her party dress. She wore her everyday dress with a wide smile on her face. Her hair was packed in a pun which meant that she had done that entirely by herself or she had asked help from Mrs. Pack which seemed impossible because she'd be very busy with the preparation. “Do you like my hair? Wake up, brother. Today is a beautiful day.” I still felt sleepy but I dared not stay in bed when I had Lily on my neck and for the fact that today was her birthday. I felt bad that I wasn't the one standing over her bed with a cake. After everything that happened with the party planning coupled with the Hargrove case, I was so tired and needed to get some rest. “I'm awake. I'm awake.” I said. Lily was jumping now by my bed side. “It's my birthday!!” Lily screamed that it startled me a bit. This was probably the first time I've seen her genuinely excited. “I know.” I said. “I helped you plan it.” “I'm six.” “I know.” “Six is different from five.” She jumped again. “I feel different!” “How different do you feel?” I asked her. I wanted to let out all that joy and happiness she felt. “I feel more certain.” “Hapoy birthday my princess.” I opened my arms for a hug. I could see that she was already getting emotional. The tears were threatening to fall. “Don't cry today. No. No.” “Thank you.” She said, cleaning her teary eyes. She sat very close to me on the bed and for a moment, we sat there together in the silence. I was grateful to have a little pretty girl with the purest eyes. “Alright. Let's go get ready.” “When is the party starting?” I asked her. “11am.” She responded. “Emma is coming in by 8am.” “I know.” “Then why are you still in bed?” Lily asked and I realized that she wasn't wrong. I was still in bed when I should be outside helping everyone out. “Where's agent Yemi?” “Aunt Yemi??” Lily asked with her high pitched voice which surprised me. I wondered if this was still because she was excited about the party. “Aunt?” “Yes. You know you shouldn't be professional all the time. You should call her Miss. Yemi.” I glanced at Lily. Does being six make someone more articulate and bold? “Why?” “I just think that's the right thing to do. And she's so nice to me. She practically did most of the planning of my party. She asked about my preference. I like her.” I didn't ask her these things but she still talked. If she liked Yemi, then what about Emma. “And Emma?” “She's also nice. It just feels like she's not really here for my party. She's your friend right? Maybe she's here because of you.” I thought about that. Even a five year old could see through Emma. “I'll be down shortly.” I told Lily and she left. Soon I was downstairs. I saw Emma arrive. She was carrying two bags and she was wearing purple clothes which didn't make any sense. Was she trying to impress Lily or was she just being performative as usual. She said good morning to me and then to Mrs. Pack who was directing two staff members on where the tables should go. She then greeted Yemi who was coming down from the stairs upstairs holding Lily's hand. You could notice that they were smiling from ear to ear which meant they were having the best conversation, possibly. Emma smiled at Lily and took her hands when she finally came downstairs. I watched them go. Was this a new bond trying to grow between these two? Yemi stopped at the bottom of the stairs. “She's been up since five thirty.” Yemi said. “Yes, she came to my room too, so excited.” “I know how she feels. Honestly when I was little I didn't get the chance to celebrate my birthdays and I felt so bad. Seeing her now gives me that satisfaction.” I looked at Yemi and saw her looking into space. Was she also like me? Did she have a traumatic past like I did? I also didn't ever celebrate my birthday. How could I when I never had anyone by my side? Yemi smiled. She was in her working clothes but she had a small purple ribbon tied around her wrist that I had not seen before. She saw me notice it. “Oh, it was Lily who tied it this morning. She was overly excited. She said everyone in the party needed to put on something purple.” She said, “And I see your friend did a great job at that.” She was talking about Emma but I didn't respond to that. “She tied mine last night.” I said and Yemi looked at the ribbon on my wrist and then she looked at me. “What about you?” “What about me?” . “Aren't you going to dress up for this party?” “Dress up?” She seemed surprised that I was asking something like this. “I'm on duty.” Yemi looked at me and there was something in that look that was warm and specific and entirely genuine. “Well, you are free to do whatever you want. It's Lily's birthday party after all.” I said, trying to avoid her glare. I could see that she was trying hard not to smile. “Well, I guess I have to take your advice." she said quietly like she was whispering. I didn't know why I felt this way but my heart was beating fast. I'd never heard her use that tone on anyone and now I was thinking about it. "Yes," I said, putting my hands in my pocket. I walked away slowly, afraid I'd make a mistake if I stayed here. Then Mrs. Pack called her from the garden asking about the table placement.
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chapter 118
The Sarah Blackwell Foundation launch had been planned for months, long before the verdict, long before Daniel's sentencing, long before any of us had known exactly what shape the trial's ending would take. Henry had insisted on that timeline early on, back when the whole idea had still been little more than a conversation in the study — that the Foundation should never appear to be a reaction to the trial, something conjured up in its aftermath to manage public perception, but something built carefully and deliberately alongside it, so that when it finally opened its doors, it could stand entirely on its own."If we launch it the week of the verdict," Henry had told me back then, "it will read as strategy. If we launch it on its own timeline, regardless of what the trial is doing, it will read as what it actually is."I had not fully understood, at the time, how much that distinction would matter. I understood it now, standing in the small courtyard behind the Bla
chapter 117
Lily found me in the garden that evening, where I had gone to watch the last of the daylight fade behind the trees, and climbed up onto the bench beside me with her rabbit tucked under one arm, the same way she had climbed up onto so many benches, over so many difficult evenings, across this entire strange, extraordinary year."Henry told me about Daniel," she said. "Eight years. That's a really long time.""It is," I agreed."Longer than I've been alive," Lily observed, working through the maths with visible concentration. "Longer than I've been alive twice, almost.""Almost," I agreed again.She was quiet for a moment, swinging her feet where they did not quite reach the ground from the bench."Do you feel bad for him?" she asked. "Even though he was one of the bad people?"I considered the question carefully, the way I had learned to consider most of Lily's questions, understanding that she rarely asked something simp
chapter 116
"No," Emma agreed. "It's actually the only thing I have that I'm proud of, if I'm being completely honest. Isn't that strange? Everything I used to think mattered — the money, the status, the way I looked in a room — none of it feels like it means anything now. The thing I'm actually proud of is standing in a witness box and telling twelve strangers the truth, even though it cost me everything."I thought about that for a long moment, about the particular strange arc of Emma Clarke's story — the woman who had once told me, cruelly and deliberately, that I would never be enough, who had married into wealth and comfort and lost herself, slowly, inside the performance of it, only to find, at the very end of all of it, that the truest thing she had ever done was the thing that cost her the most."What are you going to do," I asked. "Now that it's actually over.""I don't know yet," Emma admitted. "I think I need some time before I figure that out. I've spent s
chapter 115
The press storm did not wait for morning.By the time I woke, barely six hours after finally falling asleep the night of the verdict, my phone had already accumulated more notifications than I had the patience to scroll through — messages from Gerald, from Patricia, from numbers I did not recognise claiming to represent one outlet or another, and beneath all of it, a headline from Sandra Wealth's own publication that Henry had apparently forwarded sometime after midnight with no comment attached, only the link itself.VICTORIA PIERCE CONVICTED: THE FULL STORY OF SARAH BLACKWELL, TWENTY YEARS IN THE MAKING.I read it standing in my bedroom in the grey early light, still in the clothes I had fallen asleep in the night before, and found that Sandra had done exactly what she had promised, months ago, in that meeting room — told the complete story, without flattering any version of it, including the parts that complicated rather than simplified my own place in it. She had included Victoria
chapter 114
We left the courthouse into a wall of noise unlike anything I had experienced through the entire trial — cameras flashing in a continuous, overlapping strobe, questions shouted from every direction, the particular frenzy of a story reaching its climax in real time in front of a crowd that had been waiting for exactly this moment.I did not answer any of it, the same as I had not answered anything through the previous two weeks, but I found, walking through it this time, that I did not feel the same tight, defensive bracing I had felt on every previous day. Something in me had loosened, finally, released by the weight of the verdict, and I walked through that crowd of shouted questions and flashing cameras with something that felt, for the first time in longer than I could remember, almost like peace.Brandon's team got us to the car quickly, and Henry drove, and Yemi sat pressed close beside me in the back seat, her head resting against my shoulder, and none of us
chapter 113
I did not look at Victoria. I could not, in that first instant, tear my eyes away from the jury foreperson, from the plain, steady certainty in her voice, as though looking away too quickly might somehow unmake what had just been said."On the second count," Judge Adeyemi continued, her voice unwavering, "manslaughter, in the matter of James Blackwell — how do you find?""Guilty," the foreperson said."On the third count, manslaughter, in the matter of Nora Blackwell — how do you find?""Guilty," the foreperson said, for the third time, and I felt something in my chest finally, fully release, a year of held breath escaping all at once, and beside me I heard Yemi make a small sound that was not quite a sob but came close to one, and felt Henry's hand come to rest briefly, firmly, on my shoulder.I turned, finally, to look at Victoria.She had not moved.She stood exactly where she had stood when the verdict began, her pos
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