Chapter 13
The case moved slowly.
That frustrated Raffaele.
It helped Sofia.
She had spent five years with a blank space in her memory.
Now too much had returned at once.
Therapy became part of her week.
So did ordinary things.
Taking Ava to preschool.
Buying groceries without assistants.
Sleeping badly.
Sleeping better.
Remembering Beatrice as a person instead of only as a death.
Natalie sent photographs.
Beatrice laughing on a beach.
Beatrice holding a terrible birthday cake.
Beatrice wearing the silver shoes Sofia remembered from the foundry.
Sofia kept one picture.
Not the shoes.
A picture of Beatrice barefoot.
Meanwhile Preston’s attorneys contested how the fall should be characterized.
He denied intending Beatrice’s death.
The physical evidence from five years earlier could not establish every movement on the mezzanine.
Grace’s admissions supported obstruction and concealment.
Preston’s own statements supported assaultive conduct and threats.
The recovered audio supported the confrontation.
There would be no perfect reconstruction.
Sofia eventually accepted that.
“You don't need every second,” Natalie told her.
Sofia looked at Beatrice’s photograph.
“I thought I did.”
“You needed to know she didn't abandon herself.”
That was true.
Beatrice had tried to leave.
She had asked for help.
She had protected Sofia.
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The Hale family had spent five years turning her into a drunk woman who made one bad step.
Whatever a court eventually decided, that version was over.
