Page 116 of Matlock
He laughed, but there was no humor in it. “You really don’t get it, do you?”
“Get what?” I demanded, frustration bubbling up inside me. “We just won. The jury’s going to see the recording tomorrow, and they’re going to acquit me. Sadie’s not going to be charged. Everything worked out.”
“Everything worked out,” Tony repeated, his tone mocking. “Jesus Christ, Simon. Do you even hear yourself?”
I stared at him, my confusion deepening. “What do you want me to say?”
“I want you to acknowledge what you did!” Tony shouted, and I flinched at the volume. “I want you to admit that you were willing to throw your entire fucking life away. Your freedom, your future, your life with me—all of it gone for a crime you didn’t commit!”
“I was protecting her,” I said, my voice defensive.
“She had a recording!” Tony roared. “She had video proof of self-defense, and she ran anyway! Becauseyoutold her to run!” He jabbed his finger in my direction. “You told her to leave you holding the bag!”
“I didn’t know she had a recording,” I argued, my hands clenching into fists.
“That’s not the fucking point!” Tony’s voice cracked like a whip. “The point is, you made that decision without consulting me. Without asking what I thought. Without considering what it would do to me to watch you go to prison for something you didn’t do!”
The words hit me like a slap. “I was trying to protect her.”
“You were controlling her,” Tony shot back. “You decided what was best for Sadie. You decided what was best for me. You made choices for everyone without asking what we wanted, what we needed. You played God, Simon, and you didn’t even fucking realize it.”
“I didn’t have time—”
“Bullshit!” Tony’s voice was raw now. “You had time. You had plenty of time. You just didn’t want to hear anyone tell you no.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but the words died in my throat. Because somewhere deep down, I knew he was right.
“You think you’re being selfless,” Tony continued, his voice dropping to something quieter but no less cutting. “You think you’re protecting everyone. But what you’re really doing is deciding for them. You’re taking away their agency, their choice. You’re so busy trying to save everyone that you don’t even see how you’re suffocating them.”
“I was trying to keep Sadie out of prison,” I said, my voice shaking. “I was trying to—”
“You were trying to fix something that wasn’t yours to fix,” Tony interrupted. “You saw a problem, and you decided you were the only one who could solve it. You didn’t trust Sadie to make her own choices. You didn’t trust me to defend her. You didn’t trust me to find another way.”
I felt something crack inside me. “What was I supposed to do? Let her go to prison?”
“You were supposed to tell me the truth!” Tony roared. “You were supposed to trust me to do my fucking job! Instead, you lied to me. You manipulated me. You made me defend you for a crime you didn’t commit, and you didn’t even have the decency to tell me why.”
“I couldn’t—”
“Yes, you could,” Tony said, his voice hard. “You just didn’t want to. Because if you told me, I might have stopped you. I might have found another way. And you couldn’t risk that, could you? You couldn’t risk someone else being in control.”
The accusation hung in the air between us, and I felt the truth of it settle into my bones.
“It was my fault,” I said quietly, my voice breaking. “I failed her.”
Tony’s expression shifted slightly, some of the anger giving way to something else. “What?”
“I knew,” I said, the words tumbling out now. “I knew he was hurting her. I saw the bruises. I offered to help. And she told me no. She told me she was fine, that she didn’t need help. And I... I let her tell me no.”
My throat tightened, and I had to force the words out. “I let her have control when she needed someone to take it away from her. And she killed him. She has to live with that the rest of her life because I did nothing.” My hand slammed against my chest. “I let her down when she needed me most.”
Tony’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t interrupt.
“So when she called me that night,” I continued, my voice shaking, “when she told me what happened, I knew I had to fix it. I had to make up for all the times I didn’t help her. I had to take the blame because it was my fault she was in that position in the first place.”
“Simon,” Tony said, and his voice was softer now. “It wasn’t your fault.”
“Wasn’t it?” I demanded, tears burning in my eyes. “She is my baby sister, and I did nothing. I let her suffer because I was too much of a coward to push back when she told me no. He was her first fucking boyfriend.” I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “I was afraid she’d resent me if I kept pushing, worried that if I insisted, she’d pull away from me more.”
