After that night things seemed to quiet down a little bit. After the…incident, no one seemed to bother us. I was glad for that really. I was a complete mess for the first few months. Having constant nightmares that made me cry out at night. The tears never seemed to stop falling as I recalled what I had done. I just tried to tell myself over and over again that I needed to do it. It was in self defence. He would have killed me if I didn't. Maybe that was the truth, but it didn't make me feel any better.

After a few months the nightmares, slowly, but surely became less and less. The tears would actually stop and I could be functional for longer. I recovered and got better slowly over those months.

By the time Alice's first birthday came around I was almost completely emotionally stable again. Well, apart from the odd little slip up here and there but I had expected that. For her birthday we did the normal sort of birthday procedure. A cake, presents, lots and lots of smiling. She had only a week before that taken her first steps so she was walking but obviously pretty unsteadily on her feet. The whole lounge area was turned into a some sort of cover palace with duvets spread across every inch of the flooring so she couldn't hurt herself to much from falling over.

I think that was the day my life suddenly began to become enjoyable again. Until then I had just been living only for Phil and Alice's sake. But then, that day made me realize I didn't just need them but they needed me. I loved them both so much. That realization was what made me think of what I did next.

A few months later I had sat Phil down and talked to him about the legal procedures of actually adopting Alice as our daughter. And of course, that meant telling the authorities all those painfully memories id tried so hard to lock away. I knew I had to. No, I knew I wanted to tell them. Tell them everything so mum would never get to see Alice again. Of course that meant confessing to the murder my own father and that would cause trouble but I had to do it. It wasn't murder though, was it? I needed to kill him. Self defence, that's all it was.

So I did tell them.

I told them everything while Phil held my hand tightly, filling in the parts I couldn't tell because the tears had once again returned. Of course this was only reporting to police offers in some little interview sort of room thing. None the less the police listened to my story with sympathetic looks on their faces the whole time. After I finished one police officer actually had tears dripping down his own face. They thanked me for my tie and promised they be back in touch.

Everything moved so fast after that. They contacted us and told me I could appear in court to give evidence against my mother. They said with evidence like I had there was no chance she would get away with this no matter how good a lawyer she had.

So then that brings us to now.

The last day of the trial.

To say I was nervous was the biggest understatement in the world. All evidence had already been given and really today was just for the juries verdict. I was absolutely terrified they would say she wasn't guilty. If that happened, she'd be released and id still have to worry about her. I really, really didn't want that to happen. I just wanted to move on with my life and be happy. Have a nice little happy family with Alice and Phil. Nothing else to worry about.

We stood outside the court, Phil squeezing my hand tightly as he noticed how tense I was.

"Dad? Why is daddy sad?" Alice asked in her small little voice as she looked up at Phil from where she stood beside him. She was nearly two now and could actually talk now. Well, to a fashion. She was with us because the result of this trial affected who got custody over her. Technically, if mum was sentenced Alice would be with me since I was her only blood relative. This of course all related to officially adopting her as well. Thankfully nothing that had happened had affected her. She was too young to remember. I was happy about that. I don't ever want to let her go through anything like that again.

A small smile tugged at Phil's lips before he crouched down to Alice's height and looked into her chocolate brown eyes. "He's not sad, he's just nervous" he paused a minute, obviously thinking about how to explain it to her "He has lots of butterflies in his tummy" he Added as he lightly tickled Alice's stomach. She squealed as he tickled her, her mouth curving into a huge grin.

"Butterflies don't go in tummy's" she said in a rather serious tone as she peered up at me with a concerned expression. I laughed softly, crouching down beside Phil and ruffling her slightly curly brown hair. "There's not actual butterflies silly"

She just looked even more confused at this but the thought obviously left her head as she was quickly distracted by something else.

I stood up again, a small sigh escaping my lips as I was reminded of reality. This was it. This was the day my life could be destroyed or made better forever.

************************************************** *******************

"Will the foreman please stand"

A young brunette woman in a smart blouse with big green eyes stood up confidently as she looked from me to mum then to the judge.

"Have you reached a verdict on which you all agree?"

"Yes" she clearly spoke.

"Do you find the defendant, Mrs Howell, guilty of child abuse, attempted murder and murder?"

Phil squeezed my hand comfortingly as he kept his eyes glued on the member of the jury. The woman looked around the other members of the jury at their little nods of agreement before she took a quick breath in.

"Guilty"

There were several quiet mumbles among the gallery as the words left her mouth. I just stared in shock, the words not making sense in my head. Guilty. She was guilty. I couldn't believe it.

"Is that the final verdict of you all?"

"Yes"

There was complete silence as the judge sentenced her to what she deserved. Life in prison. Slowly people left, the jury first then the gallery until there were only a few people still left in the court room. I still couldn't believe it. This was it. I was completely free now.

"We did it" Phil whispered before softly pressing his lips to mine as a smile tugged at his lips. I couldn't help but smile too. Everything would actually be okay now. The social worker who was sitting with us gave us her blessings before leaving several papers with us and also leaving. The smile on my face grew as it hit me what this meant. Alice would be ours. After these papers were filled out and the other procedures were done Alice would be completely ours. No more running. No more hiding.

We could live normally now.

"Come on, lets get going" Phil said with a smile as he stood up. Alice shuffled her way off her seat and squeezed past Phil's legs so she stood between us. She held her hand out to me with a small smile. I knew she was too young to understand anything that had just happened but she seemed to understand how happy we all were. I stood up, picking her up in my arms and hugging her close to me. I was so incredibly happy.

"Where finally safe Alice" I whispered more to myself than anyone else.

"What daddy?" she asked as she squirmed around until I placed her on the ground so she could look into my eyes. "Nothing Alice" I held her hand squeezing it lightly as a smile was permanently plastered on my face. Phil took a hold of her other hand as we slowly began making our way out of the room. There were many people in the foyer who smiled and congratulated us on our win. Alice seemed to do a lot of the smiling and replies for us as she grinned up at them. Of course everyone had to also comment on how absolutely adorable Alice was.

We eventually escaped the crowds in the building and made our way outside. We stopped just in front of the car, Phil looking over to me with a wide smile on his face.

"Ready to go home?"

And for the first time I was ready. Home was now with him and Alice. The one place I was truly happy.

"Of course"