The younger relative brought two statements to the meeting.
One said Arden had never abandoned anyone. The other said the accusation of abandonment was unsupported by the surviving evidence and had been presented through a report that concealed relevant orders. She laid them side by side before the independent investigator and asked which would survive challenge.
“The second,” the investigator said.
“The first is what I believe.”
“You can say what you believe. A correction issued on the evidence has to say what it establishes.”
Eli sat beside Tessa and heard the scrape of the woman’s nail against the table. Her older relative had come with her, carrying the list of places where the accusation remained. Sera had arranged the recovered pages in order, each tied to its custody description. The clerk’s authenticated statement lay separately, ready to be questioned rather than treated as a seal nobody could inspect.
The younger woman read the second statement again.
“It sounds as though we’re asking people to stop believing the lie because the lie hasn’t quite proved itself.”
