Experts agree that Amanda Knox, the American woman freed Monday after spending four years in an Italian prison for the murder of her roommate, could get millions of dollars for telling her horrific tale.
The millions would come in handy for a family now at least $1 million in debt, CBS News reports, after fighting for her release.
Knox's family, though, couldn't have known at the beginning of this ordeal, when 20-year-old Amanda, from Seattle, Wash., left to study abroad in 2007 and found her self, six weeks later, tried and convicted for the brutal slaying of her roommate, that they'd some day be able to recoup their losses.
Millions of dollars in book, movie and interview deals couldn't have been farther from their minds.
At the time, all that mattered was fighting what seemed, not only to her close family and friends, as a complete miscarriage of justice.
Her freedom, to them, was priceless.
To pay her ongoing legal fees, her parents, no longer married to each other, took out second mortgages on their homes, wiped out their retirement and savings accounts. Her grandmother, the Associated Press reported, took out a $250,000 loan to help financially. Unlike Amanda's then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, also tried and convicted for the murder of Meredith Kercher, who lives in Italy, her supporters had to fly back and fourth between trials and appeals, at what can only be an extraordinary cost.
A cost they were more than willing to bear.
As Amanda flew across the ocean back to Seattle, her grandmother echoed that sentiment:
"We are happy; we are elated," Huff told the AP. "I can't tell you how happy we are."
We'd all like to think our parents would absorb every cost, hock every precious item to battle for our freedom. Not every parent could. We'd like to think our parents would ignore the authorities' distorted portrayal of their loved one and believe in our innocence.
We'd like to think our families would fight to the very end.
Not every family could. Not every family would.
While Amanda's legal team deserves much praise for continuing to fight for her freedom, we should also admire the unfaltering support her family showed during what can only be described as a nightmare.
"My family's the most important thing to me right now, and I just want to go be with them," Knox told reporters gathered in Seattle after she landed Tuesday night. "Thank you for being there for me."
Amanda may not realize what a media sensation she has become, but she knows who never gave up on her.
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