Chapter 19 - SENTENCE
I did not throw the ring away.
Too theatrical.
I gave it to Naomi to include in marital-property accounting.
It had value.
Property division does not become poetry simply because a marriage ended badly.
The ring was sold later.
Proceeds allocated under settlement.
Ordinary.
Good.
Gregory’s sentencing required separate consideration of each conviction.
Dad’s family gave victim-impact statements.
My mother spoke first.
Marcus.
Then me.
I did not describe Gregory as a monster.
“I married him.”
That made the room quiet.
“I loved him.”
Gregory looked down.
“I need the court to understand that love did not make him safe, and his ability to be loving did not erase what he did.”
I spoke about Dad.
Then the leaving.
“Thomas Hale survived the impact long enough to ask Gregory for an ambulance. Gregory heard him. He left.”
That was the fact I wanted recorded.
Not revenge adjectives.
The judge imposed a substantial prison sentence for manslaughter, leaving scene, and obstruction, with some terms consecutive and some concurrent according to statute.
Long.
Not life.
Gregory would eventually have release possibilities.
That was law.
The financial fraud case still remained.
His attorney negotiated.
Gregory pleaded guilty to attempted fraudulent transfer and falsified financial authorization.
The court considered the $175,000 successfully moved and the $640,000 attempted transfer.
Restitution.
Additional concurrent and limited consecutive time.
No fantasy hundred-year stack.
No seizure of every Mercer asset.
Creditors handled Mercer Ridge.
My divorce settlement handled marital property.
Criminal court handled fraud.
Different systems.
Malcolm’s final financial penalties increased due cooperation findings? No.
He had already been sentenced.
Mercer Industrial paid no criminal restitution for Gregory’s private act absent company liability, though its insurer and family-services failures generated civil settlements.
I brought a wrongful-death concealment civil claim against Gregory and Malcolm.
Naomi warned:
“You already have substantial assets. Litigation may take years.”
“I know.”
“What do you want?”
“Accountability.”
“Define it.”
“Costs. Damages the law recognizes. No secret settlement requiring me to pretend nothing happened.”
Reasonable.
The case eventually settled.
Malcolm contributed personally.
Gregory’s insurance applicable limits.
Mercer family-services insurer.
No absurd fortune.
A meaningful sum.
I placed most into a fund in Dad’s name supporting legal assistance for families in cold hit-and-run cases.
Not because every victim must create a foundation.
Because I wanted to.
The fund had independent directors.
I did not run it full time.
No trauma empire.
Then Malcolm asked to meet me.
One time.
Neutral law office.
“I want to give you Thomas’s watch.”
I stared.
Police had returned Dad’s watch years ago.
“This isn’t that.”
Malcolm placed another watch on the table.
Cheap digital.
Cracked face.
“I found it in Gregory’s SUV storage box after the repair.”
Not Dad’s personal watch.
A small training timer Dad used while walking.
Apparently knocked loose.
Malcolm had kept it.
Another piece he never disclosed.
My anger returned so fast I stood.
“You kept this too?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Yes, you do.”
He cried.
“I kept objects because throwing them away felt like admitting what happened.”
I understood without forgiving.
I took the timer.
Turned it over.
The screen was dead.
Then I handed it to Detective Ellis for proper supplemental evidence processing.
Not mine yet.
Procedure first.
Dad would have liked that.
Three weeks later, police returned it lawfully.
And inside the cracked plastic backing, investigators found a tiny memory card from Dad’s fitness tracker module.
Nobody knew whether anything remained readable.
May you like
The case was already over.
But the card contained Dad’s last recorded heartbeat.
