Going through picture after picture, Jeraldine couldn’t stop the tears. Memories were flooding in, and she couldn’t help but smile as she remembered the moments she had lived in their perfect home.
‘Do you the story behind that picture?’ Her grandmother broke her out of her reverie, pointed at the picture in her hand. Jeraldine saw her younger self sitting on her father’s lap. She had been no more than 5.
No, she shook her head.
‘Well, it was the day of your kindergarten prom. You were crying because not a single guy had asked you to be their princess. You see, you were very obsessed with Cinderella, and Sleeping beauty. And all day long, you would tell us all stories of how you couldn’t wait to meet your own prince charming.’ Her grandmother continued; she too was lost in a trance with tears stroking her face. ‘But that day, you were sitting in your room crying, and when your father asked what the problem was, you told him – daddy, I am so tired of waiting. Will I ever be someone’s princess? – Your dad took you into his lap and told you that he had only been in love two times, in his life. Both the times, it was a princess. The first was your mother, and the second, when you were born. He held you in his arms and fell in love with his beautiful daughter the moment he saw her. Oh, Jeraldine, you were the happiest that day.’

Even though Jeraldine couldn’t remember the events, she smiled. That is a man who brought her up. He was the one man to look after her when her mother walked out on them.
This she remembered.
She was 12 years old, and she eavesdropping on her parents. Her mother was accusing her father of loving her too much. She claimed that all that love was suffocating her, to the point that she had no option but to leave them.
The moment, who gave birth to her left them that day. And her father became both her mother and her father. The man did everything for her. He brought her to school, worked his job, and helped her with her homework and her first heartbreak. When she woke up the first time she got her periods, he was there with her, sitting beside her and explained everything.
That man would never endanger anyone, nor would he drink while working. Not even on his own birthday. And this she would prove.
With her resolved, she sat aside that picture, wanting to frame it for her room.
The two of them stayed in the living room for two hours, going through picture after picture, and by the time they were done, their faces were red with all the crying.
It was then, they both realized that it was the right thing to do. The man who had died did not deserve what he had gotten. On her own, Jeraldine took her grandmother’s hand and promised that she would try whatever it took to clear her father’s name and bring the real culprits down.