Chapter 20 - “I Thought I Owned the Place”At sentencing, Ms. Kendrick spoke.
“I grew up inside Briarwood.”
Her father repaired the first classrooms.
Her mother helped establish the early program.
“I thought that history gave me a greater claim than everyone else.”
She swallowed.
“When the property debt became dangerous, I stopped thinking of the school as children and teachers.”
“I thought of it as the asset my family had built.”
Then:
“When Declan questioned the sale, I experienced it as theft.”
Declan stared.
“Maisie became his face to me.”
Kendrick cried.
“She spilled paint water that afternoon, and I was already furious at her father.”
She paused.
“I used a child to punish an adult.”
No excuse.
Finally accurate.
“And when I realized what I had done, I did not protect Maisie.”
“I protected myself.”
She referred to the scissors.
The lie.
The reports.
The forged narrative.
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Her confession did not repair Maisie’s hair.
It did make the structure undeniable.
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