Proven Guilty (Treadmill III)

XVI

Here's the thing.

That monster of a woman who my monster of a father married? She was sentenced to one year in prison for falsifying evidence. The jury found her killing Jaxson to be an act of self-defense, which I hate to agree with, but I do agree with.

So, Lydia, and by extension my father, were out of sight and out of mind for at least a year. Even with the 500 hours of community service, I felt like that fact alone was a win.

Rebecca and my sentencings were on a Thursday, which gave us a full two and a half days before our first day of community service. It also gave us a full two and a half days to air out all of the grievances we had with each other. And we had a lot.

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"You are honestly trying to tell me that you think I should have been found guilty of being an accomplice to murder? A murder that you involved me in without my prior knowledge?"

"Do you hear yourself?" Rebecca had kept her composure up until that point in the conversation, but Kennedy could see her beginning to crack as her knuckles turned white against Kennedy's granite kitchen countertops. "Should we revisit the night that you used my car to run over your stalker? And then neglected to tell me that he was your stalker? Did I have any prior knowledge of the murder that you involved me in?"

Kennedy rolled her eyes and heaved a dramatic sigh.

"That's not the murder that we were on trial for."

"Oh I know, because Jaxson's murder ended up getting you a mistrial for Hank's murder."

"Jaxson's murder had nothing to do—"

"You know damn well that Lydia would never have given the judge the information she did unless Jaxson was dead." Rebecca shook her head in evident bewilderment. "They should study how your brain manages to make everything the fault of anyone besides yourself."

What they should study is how I'm not in prison right now, Kennedy thought.

"Look," Kennedy said, "I know that I've made a ton of mistakes throughout the past year. And I know that you, of all people, have absolutely no responsibility to continue being my friend. I get that, and I'm grateful that you're even in the same room as me right now."

She took a deep breath before continuing.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything I did to you. I'm sorry for everything that has happened since we first met. I'm sorry that I dragged you into my life when yours was going perfectly fine before me."

Rebecca looked at Kennedy for a moment before shaking her head. Her icy expression melted just enough to give Kennedy hope that she wasn't about to lose the one friend she had left.

"I'm not."

Kennedy blinked.

"What?"

"I'm not sorry that you dragged me into your life." Rebecca said, her eyes landing firmly to meet Kennedy's gaze. "Would I have preferred to not go through that many traumatizing events in less than a year? Sure. Would I have preferred to make a friend for the sake of being friends, and not for some ulterior plan? Of course. But Ken...I like myself now. I may not like how I got here, but I like who I am. I have a backbone now; I can stand on my own without relying on someone else to prop me up. I have you to thank for that.

"I'm not saying you didn't do anything wrong. You did a ridiculous number of things wrong. But that doesn't take away from the fact that I'm grateful for the person I am today, and that person exists largely because of you."