The first week after the verdict existed in a state of surreal anti-climax. The headlines screamed, then faded. The 24-hour news cycle, having gorged itself on the drama of the Vale trial, belched and moved on to a political scandal or a celebrity divorce. For the world, it was a finished story: the corrupt titan fell, justice was served. A neat denouement.
For Adrian and Amelia, there was no denouement, only a new and confusing act.
Adrian was listless. The immense, terrible purpose that had driven him for months preparing testimony, surviving cross-examination, waiting for the verdict was gone. In its place was a vast, empty plain of after. He was free. He was also untethered. The identity of "the whistleblower" had been a painful armor; now, stripped of it, he felt raw and undefined.
