Chapter 8
The compensation came through a month later.
A check for just under a million dollars.
For eight years of wrongful imprisonment.
I stared at it for a long time.
It couldn't give me back my twenties.
It couldn't give me back Mom's last years.
It couldn't give me back Ethan's childhood.
But it could give us a future.
I paid off the house.
Bought a new truck.
Set up a college fund for Ethan.
Invested the rest.
And I bought the auto shop from Mr. Torres when he decided to retire.
I named it Carter & Son.
Ethan laughed when he saw the sign.
"I'm not your son," he said.
"No," I said. "You're my brother. But you're also family. And this is as much yours as it is mine."
He worked there after school. Learned the trade.
We built something together.
May you like
Something good.
Something honest.
