Greg's Sentencing
Chapter 12 - Greg's Sentencing
Greg Ashworth's plea agreement, finalized three months after his arrest, resulted in a sentence of six years for the combined embezzlement and conspiracy charges, along with full restitution of the stolen inventory's value and a permanent prohibition on any future employment in luxury retail.
Tyler attended the sentencing with his mother, Katherine, both of them absorbing the specific, public finality of watching a husband and father formally held accountable for a decade of calculated, sustained deception.
"I keep waiting to stop being angry at him," Tyler told his school counselor, during one of their regular sessions. "Part of me wants to simply forgive him, because he's my dad. Another part of me understands that what he did to Mark's family, to his own family, was deliberate and sustained and not the kind of mistake that forgiveness can simply cover over."
"Both of those feelings are allowed to coexist," the counselor said gently. "Anger and love aren't opposites, Tyler. They often live in the same space, particularly when someone we love has caused genuine harm."
Katherine, navigating her own considerable adjustment, found unexpected support from an unlikely source, Sarah Mercer, who reached out after learning through Mark about Tyler's mother's situation.
"I understand what it's like to discover your entire marriage was built on something you never consented to," Sarah told Katherine, during a careful, honest phone call. "I'm not comparing our situations exactly. I just wanted you to know someone understands, at least partially, the specific kind of disorientation you're probably feeling right now."
Katherine was genuinely moved by the gesture, and the two women developed a cautious, supportive friendship over the following months, each of them helping the other process a very different kind of betrayal that had, nevertheless, originated from the same man's willingness to lie comprehensively to the people closest to him.
May you like
Constance Mercer, though not formally charged with any crime given the statute of limitations on her decade-old conspiracy, found herself permanently excluded from the company's operations and, considerably more painfully, from any relationship with her grandson, a consequence Richard maintained firmly despite her repeated, increasingly desperate attempts to reestablish contact.
"I don't owe her access to you," Richard told Mark, when the question arose. "She's the reason you grew up without a father. I'm not going to reward that by giving her the relationship with you she deliberately prevented me from having."
