Page 108 of This Reckless Home

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

“ASTRONOMICAL” BY SVRCINA

BLOSSOM

Ashiver runs down my arms as Justin and I stand outside Middle River Regional Jail at 9am on Tuesday, 16th of July. Waiting.

We’ve been here for forty minutes already, Jus having woken up at 5am though he won’t admit it. he keeps shifting from foot to foot, checking his phone, the door then his phone again. He’s practically vibrating and I don’t blame him. I would be too if I didn’t also feel nauseous.

The space around us is uninspiring to say the least. Functional, grey and institutional. Designed to process people like they are admin tasks, not welcome people waiting for loved ones who’ve been granted their freedom when it never should have been taken in the first place.

It’s been weeks since my live interview. Weeks where Dwight requested the police body cam footage, which showed exactly what happened to Nox and Steele. The officer who struck Steele is suspended pending investigation. The same for the one who hurled those vile slurs at Nox. The planted evidence traced back, not to the guys but to another officer who is also suspended as he was clearly being paid by Wilson.

Wilson’s corruption unravelled fast once the first thread was pulled, a thread that I’m proud to have some hand in pulling.

The response after my live interview and the one that was published in the NYT was bigger than I anticipated. People I didn’t know came forward, lots of them, to also share their own accounts of Wilson Devonshire’s wrongdoings. The case was substantial, and I was glad for it. My mother’s weapon finally doing what it was meant to do.

And all through it, I wasn’t able to speak to them. To tell them that I was working to take him down. That I wouldn’t stop until they walked free.

My hand goes to my jeans pocket, the crinkle of the paperwork from the social worker safely nestled inside. Marie called not long after I went live, letting me know that she was pushing for the kinship application, and when it came through yesterday, I asked if I could give it to them today. A peace offering. An apology.

My hands wring in front of me, that nausea in the pit of my stomach leaving me feeling unsettled and jittery.

Jus bumps my shoulder with his.

“They’ll be out soon, Miss. Blossom.” Neither of us look away from those doors.

My phone buzzes in my other pocket.

Reaching in, I pull it out and see it’s a text from Ralph.

Ralph: Wilson Devonshire was taken into police custody this morning. Charges include corruption, abuse of office, and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. I thought you'd want to know before they come out.

I read it once. Twice. My hand trembles slightly.

The nausea settles a little, though I feel far from triumphant. I mostly feel tired, my bones heavy and hollow. His consequences finally came to land after a lifetime of escaping them. He’s being held accountable for his actions, something I realise I’ve waited my whole life to see.

I think about my mother. About the years she spent with that man. The quiet documentation, the building of something she never got to see used. She didn’t live to see him brought to justice, and that, if nothing else, has a tear escaping down my cheek.

Justin looks at me. “You okay?”

I wipe my cheek, sniffing. “Yeah. Wilson’s been arrested.”

He takes an inhale through his nose. “Good. Fucking asshole.”

Then he goes back to watching the doors.

I glance over just as the noise of them opening fills the quiet morning, my heart leaping in my chest.

Dwight comes out first, paperwork and briefcase in his hands, saying something to a staff member in a black uniform.

I don’t breathe, waiting until he steps aside and then all of a sudden there they are. All three of them, in grey sweatpants and white t-shirts that don’t fit them at all. They blink in the light, and are rough around the edges in the way that god awful sleep and worse food does to you. They look like themselves and not like themselves simultaneously.

But they’re here. Finally, right here.

My eyes find Steele first, looking at his temple to see if the evidence of the baton landing is still there, which it isn’t. Then I switch to Ant, then Nox.

They need a good Tina dinner.