Chapter 39 - THE SECOND WILL
The documentary lost momentum after Corinne’s statement. Not completely. Controversy sells too well to die from shame. But the framing changed. Commentators who had treated her as the “missing voice” in the story suddenly had to confront the fact that she was rejecting their most sensational material.
Then Corinne did something more concrete.
She assigned every dollar she was legally entitled to receive from the old documentary contract to a victims’ privacy fund administered independently.
Not to me.
Not to Maisie.
Not to Laura’s estate.
A fund helping families whose sealed records were unlawfully exposed.
Rachel showed me the documents.
“You think this is image management?” I asked.
“Maybe partly.”
“Does that make it meaningless?”
“No.”
I hated her for still being useful.
Maisie reacted differently.
“So she gave the money away.”
“Yes.”
“Can I think that’s good?”
“Yes.”
“And still not want to meet her?”
“Yes.”
“Okay.”
She returned to her cereal.
Children sometimes handle moral complexity better because they haven’t spent decades trying to simplify it.
The production company eventually settled the privacy dispute. They agreed not to use Laura’s full email, Maisie’s sealed therapy material or the confidential CPS records. They could still discuss public aspects of the case. The series would continue.
I wanted it gone.
Maisie surprised me.
“Let it.”
“What?”
“If they have to tell the real version, let them.”
“You want to watch it?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
She shrugged.
“Because I’m tired of our life changing every time someone says something online.”
That sentence became my next lesson.
You cannot control every story.
You can control access.
Boundaries.
What you answer.
What you refuse.
I stopped reading comments.
Stopped checking viewer counts.
Stopped searching Laura’s name.
The world did not end.
Then Detective Grant called for what he promised would be the last time.
Owen Mercer had entered a plea regarding the records theft.
The case would not require testimony from Maisie.
“Good.”
“There’s one more thing.”
Of course.
“Owen said the producer wasn’t the first person who offered him money.”
I sat down.
“Who was?”
“He says someone contacted him anonymously months earlier asking specifically for Laura’s unsent email.”
My stomach tightened.
“Did he sell it?”
“No. He said the amount was too small.”
“Who?”
“We don’t know.”
“Corinne?”
“No evidence.”
“Tessa?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Grant sighed.
“Ethan, sometimes anonymous stays anonymous.”
I almost laughed.
Nine years ago that answer would have driven me insane.
Now I said:
“Okay.”
Grant went quiet.
“That’s new.”
“What?”
“You accepting an unknown.”
“I’m growing.”
“Terrifying.”
We hung up.
That evening Maisie opened Laura’s cabinet looking for markers.
Behind an old photograph, she found the parole-board copy of her statement Rachel had returned.
She read her own words again.
Please do not make me responsible for proving she changed.
Then she looked at me.
“I still mean that.”
“You should.”
“But I want to ask her one question.”
My chest tightened.
“Through a letter?”
“Yes.”
“What question?”
Maisie looked down at the stuffed rabbit.
“Why did she want me to stop calling for you?”
I knew the answer.
Corinne had already given versions of it.
May you like
But Maisie didn’t want my answer.
She wanted hers.
