Caroline talked for three hours.
Not the presentation as I'd requested, the real story. The version that included uncertainty and failure and the moments where she'd nearly abandoned the entire project and the reasons she hadn't.
She'd begun planning during her custody period. Not the escape that had been opportunistic, a procedural failure she'd recognized and acted on without extensive prior planning. But the work itself had been forming in her mind throughout the months of cooperation, throughout the process of providing testimony and evidence.
"I kept thinking about what you said," she told me, addressing the room but clearly speaking to me specifically. "When we met in the federal facility. You said whatever remained of your life after accountability would have possibilities. That genuine accountability followed by genuine change could lead somewhere meaningful."
"I remember."
