Call Me Copy Girl One More Time Chapter 12

Call Me Copy Girl One More Time Chapter 12: The Letter

Abel’s office smelled like paper and old coffee.

He was seventy-one and he cried when he saw me, which I was not remotely prepared for.

“Ms. Calloway. Three years.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. Sit down.” He unlocked a drawer. “Danny left instructions. Not to be delivered on a date. To be delivered when you came for it yourself.” He shook his head, smiling. “Your brother knew you extremely well

He handed me an envelope.

My name in his handwriting, which is my handwriting, because I’m the one who taught him cursive at our

kitchen table, which nearly took my legs out.

I sat in the car in the parking garage for eleven minutes before I opened it.

Cole sat in the passenger seat and didn’t say a single word, which is possibly the kindest thing anyone has

ever done for me.

Tess –

If you’re reading this, something happened in here, and I’m not there to stop you doing what you’re about to

do, and I’m so mad about that I could punch a wall.

Here’s what I think you’ll do. I think you’ll blame yourself for something twelve strangers did. I think you’ll put your hands in your pockets and find somewhere small and quiet, and you’ll call it peace, and it’ll be a cell with

the door open.

So let me say this while I’ve still got a pen they haven’t taken.

I asked for you. Not a stranger. Not some silver-haired guy with a billboard. You. And if you couldn’t get me

out, then nobody could have, and I got to sit in that courtroom next to the only person who ever fought for me

like it mattered.

You didn’t lose, Tess. Twelve people did. Then they went home for dinner.

You’re better than every lawyer I met in here, and I met a lot. I never said it because you were twenty-six and

unbearable enough already.

Don’t you dare put it away.

Chapter 12: The Letter

Be scared and loud, Tessie. It’s the only thing I ever wanted to see you be.

Danny.

I don’t know how long I cried.

Long enough that the parking garage lights went dark and clicked back on when someone drove past.

Cole reached over at some point and took the letter out of my shaking hand and folded it so I wouldn’t ruin it

“Tess.”

“He wanted me,” I said. “He wanted me at that table. I spent three years thinking I stole his one shot; and he

he asked.”

“I know.”

“I burned three years.”

“You survived three years,” he said. “There’s a difference, and you’re going to have to learn it out loud.”

I laughed and hiccuped at the same time, which is a horrifying noise.

Then I called Mr. Abel back.

“I’ll take the settlement,” I said. “All of it.”

“Ms. Calloway, that’s-”

“Not for me. Set up a fund. Trial defense for kids under twenty-five who can’t afford a real lawyer. Real

lawyers. Real experts. No plea deals signed out of fear.”

“A name for the fund?”

I looked out the windshield at nothing.

“The Danny Calloway Fund,” I said. “For people who are scared and loud at the same time.”