I’d watched her somber form take the steps down from the courthouse earlier, each step measured and with a stroke of sadness. It wasn’t easy, what I assumed she’d done within those imposing brick walls. But she’d known what she had to do. She’d taken it a step too far. It was time.
She plopped onto a bench at the sidewalk and broke down into torrents of tears. Dark hair fell around her shoulders, obscuring her from my lens, but I was rooted. I couldn’t take a picture if I tried. No one deserved to have the very moment when the life they thought they knew fell out from under them captured on film. If she only knew the real story.
It’s only the tip of the iceberg, baby.
My instincts told me to go to her, hold her in my arms and offer her some sense of comfort, but then I laughed with ironic spite, realizing how unwelcome my comfort would be.
I was the man that would soon be responsible for taking her life apart one perfect piece at a time.
