Stolen Honor Chapter 10
The light in Denise’s eyes slowly faded. She looked down at Lily, who was sobbing uncontrollably, and pulled her into a tight embrace.
Holding Lily, Denise pleaded with me. “Graham, I know I’ve wronged you. I know I don’t deserve your forgiveness.
“But Lily is innocent. For her sake, please give me one more chance. I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to both of you. I swear I’ll never hurt you again.”
Lily’s face was streaked with tears. She looked at me through blurry eyes, calling over and over, “Daddy…”
I looked at her coldly.
After a brief stab of heartache, I didn’t waver.
“She stopped recognizing me as her father a long time ago. So why should I recognize her as my daughter? You
should leave.”
Without another word, I shut the door.
Even after being turned away the first time, Denise refused to give up. She came to my house every few days. She’d drive more than a dozen miles just to buy enchiladas from the restaurant that used to be my favorite.
On Father’s Day, she brought Lily to deliver a handmade card.
Whenever I was working a shift and didn’t have time to eat, she’d show up with a homemade lunch.
She’d treated me the same way when we were dating.
And it hadn’t stopped her from cheating on me with my own brother. It hadn’t stopped her from sacrificing every principle she had for August, or from hurting me again and again.
After giving it a great deal of thought, I decided to take Denise to court.
For the past three years, she and August had worked together with my own family and friends, feeding me false leads about a fake killer.
To make me believe the lies, they’d even hired actors to lure me into one deadly situation after another.
How could I forgive them when my body still carried the scars?
At trial, Denise offered no defense. She pleaded guilty to every charge. In the end, she was sentenced to ten years in prison for intentionally causing grievous bodily harm.
Everyone who had helped Denise feed me those fake leads – Julie Sutton, my best friend, Brendan Brooks, and Gordon Patterson, the student I’d sponsored for years…
Each was convicted as an accomplice and sentenced to prison terms ranging from one to three years.
At long last, three years after it should have come, justice was finally served.
After Denise was imprisoned, Lily’s custody was awarded to me.
Denise’s parents were terrified I’d mistreat Lily, so they fought for custody and eventually won. I hadn’t wanted that responsibility anyway. I was more than happy to let them raise her.
The day they came to take Lily home, she cried and clung to me. “Daddy, do you not want me anymore? Will you come see me?”
I looked at her, memories flooding my mind.
The tiny, wrinkled newborn who hadn’t been much to look at yet had melted my heart the moment I held her.
The first time she called me “Daddy.”
I’d hugged and kissed her over and over, unable to hear it enough.
The day I believed she’d been killed in the explosion.
I’d dropped to my knees, desperately gathering every fragment of what I thought were her remains, as if my entire world had collapsed.
Then, after I finally found her alive, she pushed me away and told me I didn’t love her. She said August was her
father.
That moment felt even colder than the three days I’d spent locked inside that flooded cell.
In the end, I smiled at Lily.
“Study hard. Maybe I’ll come visit you someday.”
She nodded so hard her tears finally turned into a smile.
But this time I was the one lying.
A few days earlier, I’d submitted my resignation. I’d suffered too many injuries over the years. My body simply wasn’t capable of police work anymore.
From now on, I wanted to see the world on my own.
My flight to Iceland departed in two hours. Today marked the beginning of an open-ended trip around the world.
Everything that had happened here would finally become part of my past.
After Denise’s parents drove away with Lily, I snapped the SIM card in half, picked up my suitcase, and walked toward a brand-new life.
