Dan was another one Charlie had found to be a bit fancy, until he got to know him better and came to appreciate the man beneath the urbane veneer. “We’re both off today, but he wanted to give me a heads-up that the state is preparing to offer a settlement in your unlawful imprisonment claim.”

Charlie had resisted filing that claim until Dan, Stephanie and even Grant had compelled him to consider it. After all, the original proceedings had completely disregarded the testimony of the girl he’d supposedly abused, who’d pleaded with someone, anyone, to hear her assertions that he’d actually saved her, that her mother had been the abuser, not her stepfather.

Renee had died a short time after he was charged without ever admitting she’d lied about what happened that day in their home. She’d condemned him to hell without an ounce of remorse, as if she’d never professed to love him when she was clean and sober.

“What kind of offer?” Charlie asked hesitantly. He’d told himself over and over that it didn’t matter if anyone ever paid for what he’d been forced to endure. He had his freedom and his daughter was back in his everyday life. What else mattered?

“This is strictly off the record because it’s not an official offer yet, but he heard they’re going to come back with half a million for every year you spent in jail.”

Seven million. Holy shit.

“I still think we could get more,” Dan said. “This is just their preliminary offer, and they’ll expect us to come back with a higher number.”

“No,” Charlie said.

“Um, no? What do you mean?”

“No higher numbers. That’s more than enough. How much of that do you get?”

“None of it. I don’t want it, and I don’t need it.”

“I don’t get you. Why aren’t you like all the other hucksters out there who’d have their hands so deep into a settlement like this, I’d be lucky to be able to buy a hamburger when they were done?”

Dan tipped his head back and laughed. “Don’t think too much of my profession, do you?”

“Can you blame me?”

“Not one bit. You and most of the people I work with these days have seen the worst of us. I like to show you the best. I made a fortune as a corporate lawyer before I started the innocence project. I’m not in it for the money, but if you want to donate to the project so we can help others who’ve been unjustly convicted, I won’t say no to that.”

“Done.”

“I wish all my clients were as easy to please as you are, Charlie.”

“It doesn’t take much to make me happy these days.”