Chapter 14 - Kayla Chooses Herself
Kayla started college during the case.
Business administration.
That surprised everyone.
Tiffany had always imagined fashion.
Kevin wanted hospitality.
Kayla chose accounting after months of watching adults lie with numbers.
“Accounts don’t lie,” she said.
I corrected:
“People can make accounts lie.”
She smiled.
“Then I want to catch them.”
Fair.
She lived on campus.
Visited us Sundays.
Visited Tiffany before sentencing through supervised/approved arrangements? Tiffany was free pre-sentence until surrender. They had tense dinners.
She saw Kevin too.
We never asked what they discussed unless she volunteered.
That was important.
She was not our informant.
Her relationship with parents was hers.
One Sunday she arrived angry.
“Dad says you abandoned him.”
Gloria kept chopping vegetables.
“What do you think?”
“I think he abandoned you first.”
“You don’t need to choose.”
“He keeps making me.”
“That’s his mistake.”
Kayla started crying.
“I hate that everybody says that.”
“What?”
“You don’t have to choose.”
“Why?”
“Because I do. If he asks if I think he’s guilty, what am I supposed to say?”
“The truth.”
“And if that hurts him?”
“Then truth hurts.”
Kayla sat.
“You make it sound easy.”
“No.”
Gloria placed knife down.
“I make it sound necessary.”
Kayla stared.
Then asked:
“Do you still love Dad?”
Gloria’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
“Even after?”
“Yes.”
“Then why don’t you help him?”
“Because love is not a legal defense.”
That line stayed with Kayla.
She wrote it in a class essay later.
With permission? She told us.
Tiffany surrendered first after sentencing.
Forty months federal custody after cooperation, restitution obligations, supervised release.
Kevin received fifty two months after trial, reflecting his role and lack of acceptance until sentencing, plus restitution.
No decade long extremes.
No life destruction for shock.
Serious.
Finite.
Their restitution included bank’s net loss after Rosewood sale, fraud investigation costs where legally recoverable, and related amounts ordered.
Gloria’s property loss:
None, because lien released.
Legal fees?
Some recovered through civil settlement with bank/title insurer due verification failures.
We still paid a substantial amount.
Justice is expensive even when you are right.
Rosewood sold to new operator.
They changed name.
No Carter.
No Tiffany.
No Kevin.
Employees mostly retained.
Kayla visited once with friends.
She told us:
“It’s weird.”
“Did you eat?”
“Yes.”
“Good?”
“Honestly, better.”
May you like
Gloria laughed so hard she had to sit.
Life continued.
