My Family Sold Me for Their Favourite Daughter novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: The Hearing

The hearing was held in a conference room on the second floor of the hospital, with a flag in the corner and a long oak table.

The judge was a woman in her sixties with short grey hair, and she read my file with her chin on her hand.

My public defender was a young man with a stain on his tie.

He leaned over and whispered, "Say as little as you can."

"Why?"

"Because everything you say will sound sicker than it is."

Across the table sat Benton's partner from the firm, in a navy suit, with a stack of folders.

Behind him sat my mother in a black dress and her pearls, with her handbag on her knees and a handkerchief ready.

Benton sat beside her.

He did not look at me.

Callie came in last, on his arm, in a white blouse with a bandage taped on her forehead.

Her wrist was in a splint.

She had done her makeup so that her eyes looked tired and her mouth looked brave.

The judge looked up from the file.

"I've seen the video," she said. "I'll say that now, so no one wastes my time. It's not evidence of anything except that a woman spoke on a lawn at three in the morning."

"Your Honor," the partner said, "the video is the very thing at issue. It shows a patient in acute paranoia."

"It shows a woman in a hospital gown speaking calmly to her neighbours," the judge said. "Call your witness."

They called Callie first.

She took the chair beside the judge and pressed the handkerchief my mother gave her to her mouth.

"I only wanted her to stay," she said. "That's all. I woke up and heard the laundry door, and I knew where she'd go."

"Why were you downstairs in a nightgown?" my public defender asked.

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