Chapter 18 - Leah’s Decision
Leah could have accepted immunity and disappeared.
Instead, she agreed to testify publicly.
Her identity had been used in the scholarship fraud.
She also knew Celeste would portray her as unstable.
The same family pattern Derek used against Sarah had first been used against Leah.
As a teenager, Leah questioned missing money.
Celeste called her disloyal.
Derek told relatives she used drugs.
She joined the Army partly to escape.
Years later, Derek reused her identity because he assumed no one would believe her.
Leah chose to make the record clear.
“I did not misunderstand,” she said during her deposition.
“I did not have an episode.”
“I was locked in that room because I found evidence.”
Sarah sat behind her.
When Leah finished, she turned.
“I should have warned you about him.”
“You were trying to survive him too,” Sarah said.
They had been positioned against each other for years.
Derek told Sarah Leah was dangerous.
Told Leah Sarah was greedy.
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Isolation worked better when victims distrusted one another.
Their decision to believe each other dismantled more than a fraud scheme.
