Guilty Until Proven Innocent Pt. 02

"If you could tell the kids to call me, I guess..." she trailed off not finishing the thought. "You're not going to are you?" she asked me.

I smiled sadly at her. "No Sandra, I'll tell them, but you managed to burn your bridge with them just as they put every effort into repairing theirs to me. I don't believe they will call you willingly again."

I shrugged.

"Then again I could be wrong, I was wrong once about you."

She stumbled out the door with Stephen and surprisingly, I never saw her again.

I sat back down and Victoria hugged me. Aside from a slight nervous tick in my right hand I was alright.

"I'm so proud of you honey." She said as everyone came crowding back in. Jared whispered to Casey and she nodded, he walked out and following Sandra and Stephen.

"So," I said to the now assembled crowd of about twenty people around Victoria and I. "I guess my secret is out."

Doreen, one of the older ladies barked a harsh but not unfriendly laugh.

"Joel, all of us who have been here for any length of time have known since almost the beginning."

I looked at the older lady, then scanned the faces of the crowd, they were all nodding.

"But, why? If you all knew, then..." I started to say.

"Because you were a man in pain," Doreen replied. "We knew who you were and we talked about what to do when the Mayor invited you. Some of us were a little nervous at first, but you kept to yourself and you rarely ventured into town in those early days. Those of us you interacted with you, knew that you were broken and we talked about just giving you space to heal.

I nodded, tears growing at the corners of my eyes.

"A few reporters tried in the early days to find you, following rumors," Casey added. "Back then I had just moved here with the force and the community brought me into the loop and we all decided that you needed protecting, so without saying anything we got rid of them just like those two today."

I nodded again, tears now leaking, but a smile on my face.

Doreen jumped in again.

"Then we started seeing you more and more with your lovely wife and then your beautiful daughters and we agreed that you could just continue to be Joel with us."

She looked at me in that way that older people can sometimes.

"You can be Mike too if you like, but we all care for you just as you are. You're part of this community, both of you and we look after our own." She finished with a nod.

For the next hour we talked, hugs and stories of incidents of people looking to find me coming out. That included one of my brother Clayton coming to town. I thought again about reaching out, Victoria looked at me and shook her head. I quickly retracted the thought and she smiled. She knew now was not the time to open that can of worms.

The following month the school fete was a success, I spent almost half the day on the dunking machine, and raised almost a thousand dollars. But Victoria was always there with a towel and a kiss. My girls were proud as punch and held my hand introducing me as the best dunking daddy at school.

In a surprise move, Garlin and Mary moved out here to be closer to us when the twins hit high-school. They felt that Victoria and I were almost closer to them than their own family and with the amount of time we spent in the air traveling back and forth it wasn't a bad idea.

They did note to us that when the twins were around the same age as their own girls were, they had a dream that sounded very similar to my family's and mine. We hugged and cried and they thanked me again for everything.

I guess you're wondering if I reconciled with my parents and siblings. Well sort of is the response I can give. When my father got cancer I sucked it up and visited him in hospital. Of course there were a few tears and a lot of apologies from their side. I got the same from my siblings. Patricia was especially emotional. But there had been too much damage despite their remorse. My kids were younger and my love for them was different. Parents and siblings had no excuse. But despite that, after my father passed away I visited them about twice a year, it's still awkward, but usually Matilda is with me acting as a bridge to them.

As I slowed down moving into my sixties, Victoria and I were asked to sit on the board of ALRO, the investment company we had put a large chunk of money into after my initial release. We had spent a decent chunk of time with Robbie and Amy over the years. As I previously mentioned they are very distant relatives and I haven't spoken about our time with them as they have their own story to tell. But sitting on their board was fun helping to pick investments that could make a difference.

My family is everything to me, I have seen the heights of wonder as well as the pits of hell and without my wonderful family and friends, I can honestly say that I would not of made it.

Lastly, Victoria and I. She is still my rock, her smile is always there when I look at her, and I know her eyes only ever shine for me. Her touch still sends tingles up my arm and her body still excites me even as we age. She helps me with our charities and investments, our lives richer than I could ever have imagined and its because of her. She holds me together and I can't foresee a day when I don't wake up without her beside me.

Life is good.

[:::: Victoria ::::]

I suppose that I sadly get to have the final word in this story of betrayal, and romance. Today we buried Mike at eighty-six. He passed away peacefully in his sleep. The night before, we made love, such sweet and passionate love. He still knew how to get my motor running even after all these years. Our kids and now grandchildren live in the area, and we even got to meet three great-grandchildren together, so we call ourselves fortunate. Almost the entire town of 1770 turned out for his funeral. I was surprised to find so many people that my husband had helped over the years after being released from prison there as well. Silvia and Constance now live with me at the beach house, their husbands having passed a few years ago. Them along with a small staff for health and cleaning. It's better than a retirement home and the three of us enjoy laughing and crying over our absent spouses.

Now as the months pass, each night I go to sleep and cry as I miss my husband. I smile as I think of him and though old, I still feel a little naughty laying in bed and think about that look he gave me before I had his arms wrapped around me at a hotel so many years ago. I found a broken man, and never once have I doubted that giving him my love was anything other than the greatest blessing I could receive as he did the same for me.

I know it won't be long before I join him. I smile at the thought as I brush my hair, clean my teeth and climb into bed in nothing but a pair of boyleg briefs. Sure my body isn't what it once was, my ass feels too wide, my breasts droop too much, the tiny bruises that I now get bumping into things don't go away quickly. But Mike still loved to touch me and hold me every chance he got.

Tonight I again smile as I fall asleep thinking of my husband and find myself in a familiar glade. Lit by moonlight there is a big park bench in the middle of the grassy area. I don't know why but even in the middle of the forest I can hear the sound of the ocean as it sounds like standing on the beach in front of our home.

Sitting on the chair are three people, in the middle, larger than life is my Mike. He stands and opens his arms and I rush into them. To the side are two young women. Also strangely, they look much older than the last time we met in this place. But this location and these two women have had more effect on my life more than any other people I have ever met.

"Welcome home my love," Mike says his arms still enfolded around me.

I kiss him until I feel a tug on my sleeve, Tina, who my daughter is named after is now a young woman, long straight black hair and an easy smile.

"Thank you for loving him and seeing his true strength," she says as she hugs me through happy tears.

"You should know," her sister Maisy says as she also gets a hug. "That without you making that choice to believe him, not just Mike's, but a lot of people's lives would have been nowhere near as happy as they were. Your one decision to believe an innocent man wasn't guilty was without question one of the pivotal moments in your nations history, though no one will ever know how much." Maisy said.

I felt awed and Mike looked at me and smiled.

"So what now," I asked.

Mikes eyes flashed.

"Anything we want," he said. "Anything we want."

[::: Fin :::]

[:::: Authors Ending Notes ::::]

Thank you everyone for reading Guilty Until Proven Innocent. I enjoyed writing this one as more of a romance rather than my usual Loving Wives story, indeed I wasn't going to include the scene with Sandra at the end until I was talking with my own wife and she encouraged me to get him a little closure.

I enjoyed writing this one with the different perspectives, I wanted to explore both sides of what Mike and Victoria were thinking so that was fun. And yes, the references to ARLO along with Robbie and Amy were from 'The Nuclear Family'. This is the first time I've referenced one of my previous stories directly.

Lastly I want to lay out a challenge.

In our lives there are moments like what Mike went through with his family, sure they are likely not as extreme as Mike's but there are moments when something comes up with our loved ones that we should pause and reflect as opposed to react. The initial spark for this story was one such incident with my daughter. She was young and getting into some trouble at school, but one incident didn't sit right so despite the evidence and reports to the contrary. I asked my daughter if she did it when no one else did. Once I got the no from her my wife and I looked closer, the end result was that the school had to make a formal apology to my daughter.

Thanks everyone,

See you in the next story.