Page 66 of Butterfly

“There’s no way that will work.”

“Howard thinks you have a good chance.”

“Has everyone forgotten what I did?” Ollie glared. “Twenty times.”

“No one has forgotten, but those nine years of abuse weren’t even considered at your sentencing, nor were Leo’s bruises, or the blow you took from your father two weeks before or the fact the only income was yours, supporting your father and your brother by working as many hours as you could at the local shop. You were exhausted, trapped, desperate.”

“I pleaded guilty to murder because that’s what I’m guilty of.”

“If it was Leo who’d snapped that night, not you, wouldn’t you do everything you could to bring him home?”

“But it wasn’t—”

“If. I saidif.”

Ollie slumped, defeated. “I don’t want to leave. I’m happier here.”

“Only because you don’t know what it could be like on the outside. You can be happy with us too. There’s a home for you; it’s waiting.”

“I have a home here.”

She hit him with a pitying look again.

“I do,” he defended.

“Just…read what Howard has to say.” Maggie turned to smile at Leo. It was his cue to return to the table. He didn’t ask what they’d been discussing, but he did dart looks between Ollie and his auntie.

“How’s Jess?” Ollie asked, bluntly moving the subject on to something new.

Leo blushed furiously, then replied she was fine. No more was said about Howard or the idea of an appeal, but it lingered in the back of Ollie’s mind.

When Ollie returned to the cell, Teddy was elsewhere. He pushed the door closed, kneeled in front of the drawers and pulled out the last letter he’d received from Howard Noble.

Ollie shifted to get comfortable, crossing his legs, then opened the letter.

Howard introduced himself and said he was writing to Ollie after speaking with Leo and his legal guardian, Maggie.

The appeal centred on the manslaughter plea of loss of control with attributing factors. Ollie frowned. Loss of control. It had felt like that at the time, like his body reacted without his brain’s consent.

By Ollie’s own admission, he kept a knife beneath his pillow for months for self-defence for him and his brother.

He only used it on his father after he’d seen Leo’s bruises and realised what must have happened. That had been the trigger. He feared for Leo’s safety.

It wasn’t revenge; he wanted to make sure it couldn’t happen again.

Failing once was bad enough.

It had hollowed him out completely.

It took away his soul.

He had to make sure his father never got a chance to hurt Leo again, and to hell with the consequences.

Howard was confident that if they could prove the abuse, diminished responsibility would also be considered, with Ollie suffering from mental instability at the time due to almost a decade-long torment he’d endured at the hands of his father.

Howard proposed both pleas were also supported by self-defence, just not in the traditional sense. Ollie was not under threat at the time of the attack, but he did fear he and his brother would be under threat again if he didn’t intervene in a pattern of behaviour.

The words all started to blur, so Ollie closed his eyes, easing out a breath.

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