Chapter 20 - EVELYN’S APPEAL
One of Evelyn’s fraud convictions was reversed because the jury instruction duplicated another offense.
Her major convictions remained.
Sentence reduced modestly.
Headlines:
BENNETT MATRIARCH WINS APPEAL.
Leo was eleven.
“Does that mean she didn’t steal?”
“No.”
“What does it mean?”
“The court corrected one legal mistake.”
“Why does the headline sound bigger?”
“Because simple stories get attention.”
He hated that.
Good.
Evelyn eventually moved to a medical prison unit because of cardiac disease.
She wrote Leo.
The letter went through attorneys.
He refused at first.
At fourteen, he read it.
She wrote:
I am sorry I struck you.
Then:
I believed your mother’s family had taken too much from ours.
Leo stopped.
“She still thinks money did it.”
“Keep reading if you want.”
Later she corrected herself.
That belief did not make you responsible. You were four. I knew you were four. I hit you because I was angry and wanted the room to obey me.
Better.
Leo folded the letter.
“Do I forgive her?”
“You tell me.”
“I don’t know.”
“Then you don’t know.”
May you like
No deadline.
No family pressure.
