“We sentence Mr. John Winters to 30 years of life in prison” the judge spoke firmly.

I sighed and looked over at the jury. They seemed to be looking at me as if to see my reaction.

I had no reaction. I had seen this coming all along and knew it was the right thing.

The numerous charges they had placed on my father were something that had shocked me at first.

What started with something so small led to something so big.

As they took him away he turned to face me.

He looked me straight in the eye, however his stare was very different.

It wasn’t really a stare.

It wasn’t the look of a tyrant, billionaire, corrupt man but rather that of a man asking for forgiveness.

One look said so much.

My father was not a bad man. He just happened to get tied up with money and he made many bad choices to get to where he wanted.

The scariest truth I found out?

My mother had been a victim.

She had never run away. She had been killed. Killed by an enemy of my father’s.

Bad decisions, bad consequences.

What starts out wrong, ends wrong.

The truth set my family free. However after the storm there is always a mess and plenty to repair and clean up.

I took a deep breath, the storm was over. The storm was gone.