He Ignored 18 Calls While Our Son Died—So My Billionaire Father and I Destroyed His Whole Life

The fallout was spectacular.

It was on the front page of every newspaper, every gossip blog, and every financial network.

STERLING GLOBAL EXEC ARRESTED IN MASSIVE EMBEZZLEMENT SCANDAL. MISTRESS IMPLICATED.

Garrett tried to call me from jail. I blocked the number.

He tried to get his lawyers to negotiate. My father's legal team buried them in so much paperwork they couldn't even see daylight.

But the best part was Melissa.

When she realized Garrett’s accounts were entirely frozen and the millions they stole had been clawed back by my father’s banks, she turned on him instantly.

She cut a plea deal with the prosecutors.

To save herself from a ten-year sentence, she gave them everything. She testified that Garrett was the mastermind. She handed over his private journals, his passwords, and recordings she had secretly made of him planning the theft.

There is no loyalty among thieves. And there is certainly no loyalty among people who build their romance on the grave of a dying child.

I attended Garrett's bail hearing.

He walked into the courtroom in an orange jumpsuit. He looked ten years older. His hair was thinning, his eyes sunken.

The judge looked at the evidence. He looked at the flight risk. He looked at the fact that Garrett had zero dollars to his name.

"Bail denied," the judge banged his gavel.

Garrett looked at me across the courtroom. He mouthed the words, I'm sorry.

I didn't even blink.

I just stood up, smoothed my skirt, and walked out of the courtroom into the bright sunlight.

I drove straight to the cemetery.

The grass had finally started to grow over Ethan's grave. I sat down on the blanket, pulling Captain Ellie out of my purse, and placed it next to the headstone.

"He can't hurt us anymore, sweetie," I whispered, tracing the letters of my son's name on the cold stone.

For the first time since that night in the hospital, I finally let myself cry.