Mason closed the transcript and walked outside.
Naomi followed.
“You all right?”
“I keep thinking about Dad reading this after the trial.”
“He probably believed parts of it at first.”
Mason nodded.
That hurt.
But it also made Arthur’s later actions more meaningful.
Arthur had changed his mind when the evidence changed.
He had not protected Mason merely because Mason was his son.
He had checked the records.
That distinction mattered.
Mason returned to his desk.
He placed the transcript in the fund’s archive beside a copy of Arthur’s
first letter.
The two documents told opposite stories about the same man.
One had sent Mason to prison.
The other had helped bring him back.
Neither deserved belief merely because it was written on
official-looking paper.
Evidence had to survive questions.
That became the fund’s culture.
Mason trained volunteers never to promise outcomes.
Never tell a family that one strange detail proved a conspiracy.
