Chapter 13 - THE LAST LIE OF RICHARD CARRINGTON
Richard Carrington's trial began the following autumn.
The courtroom was crowded.
Reporters filled the benches.
Financial journalists followed every development.
Carrington arrived wearing a dark suit and an expression of practiced calm.
He looked like a man attending a board meeting.
Not a man accused of helping destroy a family.
The prosecution presented financial records.
Witness testimony.
Communications.
Evidence recovered from the painting.
And records concerning Luca's disappearance.
Carrington denied wrongdoing.
He blamed Sorelli.
Claimed the transactions were legitimate.
Insisted he had never intended harm.
Then a former associate testified.
He described the plan to remove Luca from the family.
The staged accident.
The false identity.
The payments used to keep the boy hidden.
Gabriel sat beside Luke.
I watched from the gallery.
Luke's hands trembled.
Gabriel reached for them.
When the verdicts were announced, the courtroom fell silent.
Carrington was convicted on several serious charges.
Other proceedings continued.
Sorelli also faced criminal consequences.
Spencer's case was resolved separately through the courts.
Outside, reporters shouted questions.
Gabriel ignored them.
Luke looked exhausted.
I stood between them.
A journalist called:
“Ms. Brooks! Do you forgive the men who did this?”
I stopped.
Then turned.
“No.”
The cameras flashed.
I continued.
“Forgiveness isn't something strangers get to demand from victims.”
Silence.
“I want accountability. I want the truth preserved. And I want to live my life.”
I walked away.
That evening, Gabriel invited Luke and me to dinner.
Not at a luxury restaurant.
At a small Italian place in Brooklyn.
The kind where the owner knew everyone's name.
Luke ordered too much food.
Gabriel teased him.
I laughed.
At one point, Luke looked at me.
“Your mother would have loved this.”
My throat tightened.
“Would she?”
He nodded.
“She always wanted us to be together.”
Gabriel looked down.
For a moment, I saw the weight of everything he'd lost.
Then Luke reached across the table.
“Hey.”
Gabriel looked up.
“We're here now.”
Gabriel's eyes filled.
He nodded.
“Yeah.”
I watched them.
Two brothers who had been separated by lies.
A niece who had grown up without knowing either of them.
A family trying to rebuild.
May you like
And for the first time, the Costa name didn't feel like a threat.
It felt like something we might be able to redefine.
