A Tough Valentine’s

To: Ash
From: Crecente

Valentine’s Day is always rough for my brother. The day after Valentine’s Day, two years ago, his daughter was shot in the head by an abusive ex-boyfriend who, apparently, wanted to spare himself the embarrassment of revealing to her that his promises of sobriety and life on the straight and narrow was nothing more than a thin tapestry of lies.

My brother has, increasingly, been dealing with this death. But today he discovered that the man who allegedly supplied the gun to his daughter’s killer will likely be set free. Released, it turns out, because Jennifer’s spineless murderer can’t be bothered to stick to the agreement of his plea bargain and testify against his weapon supplier in open court.

It shocks me that the Travis County District Attorney’s Office can be so heartless as to break this news to my brother a day shy of the two-year anniversary of his only child’s death.