Flynn pleaded guilty to the financial offenses tied to the fraudulent transfers, and when prosecutors weighed the assault-related evidence alongside the broader case — the recording, the messages, the medical records — he received a prison sentence.

Arthur faced his own separate convictions, for the fraud and for the violence both.

Fiona, who had authorized the fake invoices and then, when the walls came down, cooperated with investigators to save what she could of herself, accepted a plea arrangement of restitution and probation.

I did not attend the sentencings.

I did not need to see it, and I did not want the image in my head.

And I never once celebrated their punishments — did not toast them, did not feel the hot rush of triumph I might have expected.