Chapter 26 - The Shadow Looms
Three years into Diego's sentence, the nightmare threatened to return.
I was at the kitchen table, going over the preliminary grant applications for 'The White Line' initiative, when my cell phone rang. It was Hector, the state prosecutor who had handled my case.
"Valeria, I need you to come to my office tomorrow morning," Hector said, his tone strictly professional, yet carrying a heavy weight.
"What is wrong?" I asked, my stomach plummeting.
"Diego's defense team has filed an appeal," Hector sighed. "They found a loophole in the way the initial crime scene evidence was cataloged by the responding officers at the hospital. They are arguing for a mistrial based on procedural errors."
The room spun. I gripped the edge of the table, feeling the ghost of the black girdle tightening around my chest.
"Can they release him?" I whispered, my voice trembling.
"They are going to try to reduce his sentence or demand a new trial," Hector explained. "I need you to be prepared, Valeria. We have to fight this in the appellate court."
I hung up the phone and buried my face in my hands. The fear I thought I had conquered rushed back like a tidal wave.
My mother walked in, immediately sensing the shift in the atmosphere. She rushed over, wrapping her arms around me.
"What happened, mi amor?" she asked.
"He’s appealing, Mama," I sobbed. "Diego is trying to get out."
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"Listen to me," my mother said fiercely, pulling my head up so I had to look into her eyes. "He is a coward sitting in a cell. You are a mother, a survivor, and a fighter. You beat him once when you were weak and broken. You will completely destroy him now that you are strong."
She was right. I wiped my tears, staring at the grant papers on the table. I refused to let him take my power again.
