Chapter 18 - The Two Slaps
The assault case from the gala did not disappear.
I had struck Lucy twice.
Public exposure did not make that legal.
My lawyer negotiated a misdemeanor resolution.
Community service.
Fine.
Anger-management course.
Some supporters were furious.
"They should dismiss it."
"No."
I said it every time.
"If I demand accountability from Lucy, I do not get to exempt myself."
That became one of the strangest parts of the story.
People wanted me to be a hero.
Or a hypocrite.
They did not know what to do with a person who said.
"I was wrong to hit her."
"And right to expose her."
Both could be true.
I completed every hour.
The anger-management course was unexpectedly useful.
Not because I had a pattern of violence.
Because I had spent years treating anger as dangerous.
Lucy used to call any anger proof I was unstable.
So I buried it.
Then at the gala, it exploded into my hand.
The counselor said.
"Suppressed anger still makes decisions."
I wrote that down.
I began therapy.
Not because Lucy had said I needed it.
Because I chose it.
That distinction mattered.
In one session, my therapist asked.
"If you could return to the ballroom, would you slap her?"
I thought.
"No."
"What would you do?"
"Play the video."
"Read the documents."
"Let security keep distance."
"And the twenty slaps?"
I smiled.
"I would keep the title."
She laughed.
"Why?"
"Because Lucy spent twenty years thinking humiliation only counted when she controlled it."
"But?"
"The real twenty slaps were consequences."
I listed them.
The fake diagnosis exposed.
The trust restored.
The diary authenticated.
Pike found.
Victor's tape.
The foundation raid.
The suspension.
The pension money returned.
Charles's cooperation.
Sienna's recordings.
The employee trust.
The original will.
The memorial.
The arrest.
The trial.
Her testimony.
The verdict.
The removal of her name.
The public archive.
And the final one.
"What was the final one?"
My therapist asked.
I looked out the window.
"People stopped believing her version of my mother."
May you like
That was always the one I wanted most.
