Eager To Please

For fourteen years, I was imprisoned for a crime I did not commit. For fourteen years, I had been denied the opportunity to watch my only daughter, Kelley, grow up. During that time, I had been resigned to watching her develop from photographs supplied to my by her adopted parents - Mark and Gina, my brother-in-law and his wife, the man I believed then, as I do now, was responsible for pulling the trigger that ended the life of my beloved husband.

Later, upon my release, my daughter, who has protested my innocence on a regular basis, had decided that she no longer wished to live with her uncle - she wanted to live with me. I agreed instantly; a chance to make up for lost time, a chance to get to know Kelley, her dreams, her wishes, her life as she has seen it for nearly a decade and a half, a chance to make amends to the only thread of my life before. I remember her coming to my home for the first time, cautious about her position in my life, until she presented me with the still-dripping severed head of her uncle, my brother-in-law. Kelley also believed in his guilt and had brought me a peace offering...I love my daughter.