11

When he stepped right up to her and took a seat on the bed, Katie was holding her breath. She began to tremble more than she was already.

"My father used to write to us." He said, his struggle for calm was evident in the strain of his tone, "He told us all about you. He adored you...thought the world of you..." He gripped his knees with his hands, in an attempt to regain control of his emotions. "We were relieved to know he had a friend back here looking out for him after what Mom and Charles did to him. We hated them for that...but it was nothing like what we felt and still feel after finding out that you had killed him. You fed him, clothed him, made sure he had a space at the shelter whenever you were volunteering there, you talked to him and let him give you the fatherly advice that he wanted to give us and then you brutally murdered him? It doesn't make sense! Why? Why? How could you do that?"

She looked up at Samantha who stood there staring at her, angrily...expectantly.

"I didn't. No one ever believed me but, I didn't. I really didn't." Katie said, and began to sob. "Mr. Edgar and Chad were the only friends I had. I would never hurt either of them. I spent most of my life at Chad's house because my parents worked all the time and when they weren't working they didn't have time for me. I met Mr. Edgar when I was twelve. Chad and his folks were gone for the weekend and my mother was working an extra shift at the hospital. My father was supposed to be meeting me at the park for the Daddy-Daughter Day picnic but he never showed up. I was upset because I had saved up all of my birthday and Christmas money and cash from collecting cans for a year to buy the tickets and he just blew me off like that. I was crying because it was proof to me that my father didn't really love me—I was twelve and a little chubby and he never seemed to want me around in public. Then, Mr. Edgar walked up and sat beside me and started talking about all of his daughters that he missed so much and wished he could have brought to the park like he used to. I gave him my dad's ticket and asked him to come with me and he played the games with me just like all of the other fathers did with their daughters that day. We ate, played, laughed and talked all afternoon and afterwards, he walked me to my house and waited until I went inside before he left. I found my dad passed out on the family room couch still in his work uniform and realized he had worked a double shift. He wasn't blowing me off, he had his clothes laid out on his bed waiting for him but he had fallen asleep trying to get a little rest before he came to meet me. After that day, I didn't ask him to do things with me anymore. I asked Mr. Edgar to stand in unless it just had to be a parent, and he was always in the crowd when I had something going on at school or needed a dad for an event. My Dad found out about it later and I think it hurt him a little but, he always gave me stuff to give him. I think, as a thank you for taking time with me when he couldn't. I introduced him to Chad and his parents and, although, his parents sort of turned their nose up at him at the time, Chad began to hang out with us every now and then too. The night your dad was killed devastated me. He was waiting for me out back of the diner I worked at. I had already brought him some clothes and food earlier that day but, he said he wanted to talk to me about something so, I decided to bring him another plate after my shift so we could talk and he could eat while he walked me home. He always walked me home if it was dark after I worked, and Chad couldn't pick me up for some reason. "

She had to pause and catch her breath as she thought about the horrible events of that night. She took a deep breath and relayed to them everything that she had seen and done from the second she opened the back door of the diner and saw her six classmates taking turns bashing him over the head with boards and pipes. Her boss was right behind her as she ran over to him as they ran away. He had known she was innocent but told the police he didn't know anything out of fear of the other kids' families. She told them how their father was still alive when she got to him and he gurgled to her, "Remember...promise..." right before he took his last breath.

Samantha and Amanda stood in the doorway sobbing, tears streaming down their faces. Garrett's face was a mask of anger and pain, as he wiped the tears from his own face.

"Look," She began, hoarsely. "I'm sorry about what happened to your dad. I wish I had told him to go on to the shelter and I would come see him the next day. I have had sixteen years to go over and over in my head about what I could have done to stop it...to prevent...." She shook her head as she began to sob again like she had never been able to do during her trial and isolation in prison or as she lived each day in fear of her own death at the hands of someone who wanted to take revenge for a life that she had not taken. "Maybe if I had sent him to the shelter, my dad would still be alive too."

"Your dad died...what does his death have to do with ours'?" Garrett asked, gruffly.

"The news of my arrest was too much for him." She sniffed, cleaning her face with a towel she had brought into the bedroom with her earlier. "When the police showed up at the house and told them I had been arrested for murder it caused him to have a massive heart attack and while he was on the operating table, he had a stroke. It was too much at once for him to survive. My mom blames me for his death...so does the rest of the family. The town hates me, not because of what they think I did to your dad but because the people I witnessed attacking him were from prominent families here and destined to do great things in college and possibly bring some notoriety and tourist traffic to the town if they were to ever become big names. My boss at the diner knew I didn't kill your dad but he lied and said he didn't know anything. He was right behind me when I screamed and ran over to him. He saw them running off just like I did...but no one, except me would go against them. He sold the diner and left town not long after my sentencing, as I understand it. I was too out of it and in shock to comprehend more than that my dad was dead, Mr. Edgar had been murdered right in front of me and I was going to go to jail for it, and my family and everyone in the community now hated me. Mrs. Anna Kingston and Chad were the only two people that believed me when I said I didn't do it...at least, they're the only ones to admit they believed me. Their word meant nothing though. No one else would testify as a character witness for me out of fear. "

The room was quiet. Mandy, Sammy, and Garrett sat side by side on the bed as they listened to her. She couldn't look at them. She was too afraid of what she would see. She knew they all hated her for what happened to their dad. She doubted they would believe her.

"I know you all don't believe me or really have a reason to...you only know what your dad wrote about me. I can't stop you from hating me or...hurting me. I doubt that anyone would do anything about it if you did. I got beat up my first week out...that's why Chad decided to escort me everywhere. At school, everybody is too scared of expulsion to do anything to me, so I make sure I'm always in a crowded area."

There was no one there with her now that could save her, though. So she braced herself for what thought would come next.