Justice, I learned in those months, is not a reward the wronged receive.

It is a duty the world performs, so that cruelty has a cost and truth has a weight, so that the next child is a little safer and the next liar a little less certain.

It is necessary.

It is not fun.

And a person who comes out of real justice feeling triumphant has, I suspect, not been paying attention to what it actually costs — which is always, on all sides, everything.

Luke received eight years, for felony obstruction of justice, conspiracy, and insurance fraud — for the cover-up, for the attempt to bury a child’s death under my daughter’s name, for the bribe and the waiver and the threats.