April Joke, Permanent Scar novel · Chapter 21 of 24
Chapter 21: The Hearing
Hannah's POV
The county courthouse smelled of floor wax and old radiators, and the hearing room was open to anyone who walked in.
By nine-fifteen on Friday morning, about thirty people had.
Beth sat behind me in her good black dress, and Seth sat beside her with the aisle on his other side.
Dylan's mother had come in late and taken the last bench, alone, her purse on her knees.
Sheridan sat three rows from the back in a cream suit, with a face arranged for sympathy.
Nobody sat next to her.
My lawyer laid a folder on the table in front of us and squeezed my arm once.
"He's conceding everything," she whispered. "His new lawyer called me last night. I have never heard a man give up so fast."
The judge was a thin man with a patient voice, and he read the file in silence for a long minute.
Then he looked over his glasses at the other table.
"Mr. Winchell. Your counsel tells me you wish to speak before I rule."
Dylan stood.
He wore the gray suit from our fourth anniversary, and it hung on him.
"Yes, Your Honor."
"Go ahead."
He did not look at his lawyer, and he did not look at the gallery.
He turned halfway toward me and spoke to the floor between us.
"Four years ago I found out that I was the reason we couldn't have a baby," he said. "I signed a form so my wife would never be told. For four years she took the injections, and she apologized to me, and I let her."
A sound moved through the room, low and unhappy.
"I told my friends she'd never leave because she needed me," he said. "I said it about a woman who was carrying the whole marriage. Then I agreed to a fake wedding, I took money from the account she named for our child, and when she told me she was pregnant, I said it couldn't be mine."
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