"I'm not asking you to forget," Everett said. "I'm asking for the chance to earn it back." "Slowly."
Naomi didn't answer that night. But she didn't ask him to leave either.
Over the following year, Everett showed up. Every diaper change he could manage. Every midnight feeding. Every doctor's appointment, sitting quietly in the waiting room chair beside her.
He testified again at Paige's sentencing hearing. This time as a witness for the restitution claim. He read a short statement about the year he'd lost. The calls that never reached him. The sons who almost grew up without a father who wanted them.
Naomi sat in the gallery that day. Caleb asleep in her arms. When Everett finished speaking, he looked directly at her. Not at the judge.
Something between them shifted that afternoon. Quiet and undeniable.
Marsh Construction survived the scandal, barely, once the truth became public. Several major clients pulled contracts during the investigation. Spooked by the headlines. Everett rebuilt slower this time. More carefully. With a new operations manager he vetted personally. He also rewrote the company's IT access policy from the ground up. No dormant credentials. No standing access after a role changed. No single person holding keys to everything, ever again.
