Page 32 of Love and Healing: Love and Book 2
One Year Later.
“Name please,” a stern officer asks.
“Danil Evanoff,” I reply.
“Do you have some ID please?”
I hand him my ID and wait for him to check his lists. “Who have you come to see?”
“Rory Connor,” I reply.
“Please make your way forward,” the officer says.
When Rory’s case had finally gone to court, he was charged with the second-degree murder of Alessia and the attempted second-degree murders of Dom, and of the guy he stabbed a few years ago. Rory got himself a big-name lawyer – well, his father did – and I think he thought because of that he was going to get away with it. He even went on the stand, still sticking to the story that his truck had been stolen and that he was an innocent victim. I think he thought that he had the jury fooled. He sat there every day looking so scared and frightened, but I knew it was fake.
Things started to go downhill when Dom was called to the witness stand to testify against Rory. All of us had told him that he didn’t have to, but Dom had insisted. He kept telling us that Rory had won, once, and he wasn’t going to let it happen again. The day he took the stand, he walked into that room proudly, without his cane, which had surprised Rory, and told his story.
Even after Dom gave quite damning evidence, I think Rory still thought that he was going to walk away, until the parking attendant got called to the stand. Rory had recognized her immediately, it was the only time his mask slipped. And when the man he had stabbed a few years ago appeared, Rory realized the evidence was mounting against him. The jury saw through him too, and found him guilty on all three charges.
When it came to sentencing, the judge gave out the maximum penalty of twenty-five years for all three charges, giving him seventy-five years, but added without the chance for parole. Rorys previous behavior showed that he was a danger to the public. Which meant Rory was going to be spending the rest of his life in prison.
I had debated coming to see Rory. I wasn’t sure that I had ever wanted to see his face again, not after what he did to me and Dom, and yet here I was. It might have been petty, but I wanted to show Rory that life had moved on. That I was over what he had done to me. So, I had started the process to visit him. It had taken a lot longer than I thought it would, but finally I had been approved. There might have been another incentive to come visit.
Sitting down in the little cubicle, I wait for Rory to be brought over to me. Safe behind the glass. When he sits down there is a huge smile on his face, but I also notice he has a black eye and some other small yellow spots indicating older bruises that have faded.
“Danil,” Rory says, as we pick up the phone to talk to each other. “You came to see me.”
“Well, I have some news that I needed to share with my friend,” I tell him. “But first, what happened to your face?”
“Its nothing. A small disagreement with some of the other inmates,” Rory starts.
After the sentencing, Papa had been true to his word and found out what prison Rory was going to, and contacted the people he knew on the inside. I didn’t want to know if these were guards or inmates, but he got feedback every few weeks to say that Rory had been sent to the infirmary again. Rorys time in prison was going to be harder than most, and it was so deserved, but I need to act like I dont know this, I need him to think I am his friend.
“You are going to need to be careful,” I say over to him. “Youre here for a long time.” And I love how Rory winces at my words.
“So, what is your news?” Rory asks.
“Well, I have a picture to show you,” I explain to him.
I had wanted to bring in my cell phone, show him all the pictures on my cell, but it never occurred to me that I wouldn’t be allowed to bring it in, until Papa explained to me that electronic devices weren’t allowed. So instead, I had printed out my favorite picture. The officer had questioned it when I had gone in, but had allowed it.
“I got married,” I say, and watch as Rorys face falls.
I rise out of my seat and pull the piece of paper out of my back pocket, unfold it and hold it up to the glass. Rory leans forward to look at the picture, and I spot the second he realizes who is in the picture with me.
“You lost, Rory,” I say. And with that, I hang up the phone and walk out.
So much has changed over the last year. Celeste had been true to her word and built bridges with all her sons, and just a month after Papa’s wedding, when she told the family she had left Ernesto, we all rallied around her. None of us saw it coming, but apparently Ernesto had found out about Celeste seeing Father Constantine as well as G, Matt and Dom, and had given her an ultimatum. Either him or her sons. She made the right choice this time and chose her sons.
Back outside the prison, I dug out the picture and looked at it; it’s my favorite picture ever. Dom and I are standing there, surrounded by family, with the biggest smiles all over our faces. I am wearing the three-piece tux I had fallen in love with when I had been looking for a tux for Papa’s wedding. He had been right, of course, which he didn’t let me forget, it was the tux I wore the day I married Dom.
The End.