Chapter 15 - THE DEPOSITION OF REMORSE
In the spring, Andrew applied for early parole a second time.
His legal team sent a formal request asking for a family impact statement.
They suggested that if his daughters signed a letter stating he had made full spiritual amends, the board would look favorably on his release.
A junior attorney called my cell phone.
“Mr. Vance has spent ten years in prison,” the attorney said, his voice smooth and persuasive. “He is an old man now. He teaches literacy in the prison library. He has turned a corner.”
“I am glad he is teaching people to read,” I said.
“Will your daughters write the letter?”
“You can ask them.”
Sophia and Chloe met the attorney in a conference room at Rebecca’s firm.
The attorney placed two pre-written letters on the table.
They contained phrases like healing, reconciliation, and restoration of the father’s place.
Sophia read her letter carefully.
Then she laid her pen down beside it.
“My father did not go to prison because he failed to love us,” Sophia said softly.
“He went to prison because he committed felony fraud, stole from his children, and helped starve his family to protect a bank account.”
“He is remorseful,” the attorney insisted.
“Remorse is between him and his conscience,” Chloe said, sitting beside her sister. “It is not a ticket out of a sentence he earned.”
Neither girl signed.
At the parole hearing two weeks later, Andrew appeared on the video screen.
He looked gray and thin.
The arrogance was gone, replaced by a hollow, practiced humility.
When the board asked if his family supported his release, he looked into the camera lens and spoke directly to the empty chairs in the gallery.
“I gave them everything,” he whispered.
The board chairman looked at the file, then down at the signed statements from the court ten years earlier.
“No, Mr. Vance,” the chairman said. “You gave them an invoice.”
The application was denied.
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Andrew remained behind the wire.
And the world outside kept turning without his permission.
