Chapter 52: Peace
Your mother's presence makes your story more believable somehow. Two women, running from the same man, with identical scars? Your scars alone told a tragic story which could have been written off, but with hers combined with yours it leaves no doubt as to the cause. The man in a pauper's grave on the East side of town.
The fact that you were living with him for a few months also lends credence to your defense. You had the motive and opportunity to kill him much earlier but you stayed and you didn't raise a hand to him until he became violent toward someone else. It's not quite self-defense, but it's close enough to get the charge down from murder to man-slaughter, then defense of another, then death by misadventure, seeing as he could just as easily thrown either one of you over the edge instead and had a history of violence. You have jail-time to do; you worked in a bomb factory without clearance, under a false name and you did kill a man. The judge seems quite understanding of the circumstances and, after questioning Lorna, suggests that you get your clearance as soon as you can because this country is counting on women like you.
Just a day ago this would have seemed impossible. You were facing the hemp, and now, now your mother is here and alive, and it looks like you'll be able to go back to VicMu after serving a handful of months. You're not looking forward to prison, but it could have been so much worse. It should have been so much worse.
You're allowed to see Betty briefly in the courtroom; you're answering questions but it feels like your eyes haven't left hers. Your mother is sitting directly behind her, and the judge seems to warm to you when he notices. Two months is all you get, and you will receive your security clearance for time served on release, which means you'll be able to go back to work immediately, start paying Betty back, start paying Gladys back for her trust in you even though she got the bond back.
Your mother appears as you're being moved from the station to the prison. The guard steps back respectfully; you're cuffed even with a broken hand and you have nowhere to go. Your mother hugs you awkwardly and steps back.
"Betty's seen to your things and she's booked your room for when you get out. She says not to worry."
"She wanted to take the rap for me," you tell your mother. "She wanted me to pretend that she threw him off the balcony. She wanted to protect me but she couldn't see that this was something I had to do for myself. He's stopped haunting me, now."
Your mother swallows. She knows better than anyone how your father can haunt a person. She knows it wasn't her you were looking at in the courtroom.
"If I'd met someone who cares about me the way she cares for you, I would have left your father that instant, Marian. She's lovely, and she makes you happy."
"She fought for me. Not just father, other... people. She makes me feel worth fighting for. I could no more let him lay a hand on her than..." You shrug, and your mother just nods.
"I'm going to stay with your grandmother for a while. I'll write," she says, and then she's gone, and you're helped into the back of a van.
Some of your belongings are in a box on the bed in your cell; clothes, mostly, and a letter is in there with them.
It's signed 'Ivan', but you recognise Betty's scrawl on the pages.
Authors note: it seemed strange to me that, after the truth was revealed in the season 2 finale that Kate was allowed to continue her life as though nothing had changed, not even her name. Surely her security clearance was voided and she had to obtain a new one, surely people wanted to call her by her real name, surely her reputation was called in to question.
But in the movie her life as just continued without Ivan, Gladys and Betty.
