Chapter 20 - My case ends
My diversion ended three months later.
I completed:
Twenty-four hours conflict-management education.
Forty hours community service.
No new offense.
I reimbursed Victoria’s uninsured urgent-care costs through a civil settlement arranged by counsel.
Modest.
No admission beyond what I had already made.
My criminal charge was dismissed after completion under the program.
I did not describe myself as:
exonerated.
I had kicked her.
The legal outcome reflected context and record.
Not innocence.
At our final family mediation, Victoria said:
“I still don’t understand why Arthur has a conviction and you don’t.”
Ellen March answered before I did.
“Because they were charged under different facts and received different resolutions.”
Victoria looked at me.
“Does that feel fair to you?”
“No.”
She seemed surprised.
“What?”
“Fairness is not everybody receiving identical consequences.”
I continued:
“I hurt you. I apologized. I completed what the court required. I paid your medical expense. If you need me to carry Arthur’s sentence too so the family feels balanced, I can’t.”
She cried.
Then:
“I wanted you to be on my side.”
There.
“I was.”
“What?”
May you like
“For thirty-two years.”
That was the problem.
