Chapter 30 - Silas
Silas never went to trial.
Not immediately.
His attorneys delayed proceedings for almost three years.
Classified evidence.
Jurisdiction disputes.
Medical claims.
Challenges to the Mirror's authenticity.
Each time, the Anniversary Chain survived examination.
Eventually Silas accepted a plea that guaranteed he would never again leave federal custody.
Before sentencing, Abraham visited him.
Emily did not attend.
She never asked exactly what the brothers said.
Abraham told her only one thing.
"He apologized."
"Silas?"
"No."
Emily understood.
Abraham had apologized to Silas for abandoning him in Belgrade.
Not for everything that followed.
Only for what was his.
"Did he forgive you?"
"No."
"Are you okay with that?"
Abraham considered the question.
"I had to be."
Silas died seven years later from heart failure inside a federal medical facility.
He and Abraham exchanged seventeen letters during those years.
Abraham kept them in a wooden box but never showed anyone.
When Emily once asked what they contained, he said:
"Two old men arguing about which one remembered being young correctly."
That was enough.
Silas never became innocent.
May you like
Abraham never became blameless.
They simply stopped requiring a lie in order to speak to each other.
