MERIDIAN -- It was a murder many in the Treasure Valley remember all too well. A husband killing the man his wife was seeing in the parking lot of the Walgreens back in 2011.
Now, the victim's wife has published a book about the story.
It's called "Silence Breaks," the first book in a series called "The Moments We Stand," and it just came out last week.
Ashlee Birk says it walks back through her emotions after her husband was killed, and she learned he hadn't been loyal.
She hopes it will remind readers to always look for bright moments and to live for others, instead of yourself.
She admits for years she kept quiet, hoping to hide from what happened.
"It's humiliating, who wants to be the wife who wasn't enough, and to admit that you've gone through years of almost hating yourself for something other people did," said Birk.
But then, she had a dream. In it, her former husband Emmett told her to share what happened in order to help others heal.
Ashlee still remembers the words he spoke to her that night.
"If you could just share your story about how I screwed up and how this story ended, you could save a family, or you could save a life," said Birk.
So in January she started blogging about her experience, and then she started turning her stories into a book.
"Silence Breaks" walks through the first month-and-a-half after Emmett Corrigan's murder.
In it, Ashlee talks about how she got through the unimaginable, and how she and her children healed.
She recounts particular moments, like a night when her newborn was crying and she heard a spiritual song that suddenly put her at peace.
"For me that was one of my most tender moments, I'm going to be okay, there's someone carrying me through all this, and my little baby was part of that," said Birk.
Ashlee hopes the series will show readers that even at the worst times, there are blessings.
"There were good things that came out of it and lessons I learned that I couldn't have learned another way, my story wasn't in vain if other people change and heal from it," said Birk.
Ashlee has gotten remarried and lives in Meridian with the family's six children.
She says one day, when they're older, she hopes her kids will read the book in order to learn more about the tragedy affected their family.
The book is available online only and you can also request it at the local library.
