Chapter 22: Sentencing

Tobias's POV

Lyle's lawyer withdrew the release on Monday, in a one-line letter.

I never learned why, but I could guess.

The nine years only worked if I signed away my right to sue.

I had read the page twice, and I didn't sign it.

So Lyle pleaded guilty without a deal, and the sentencing was set for Friday at ten.

The courtroom was full.

Hannah sat beside me in the second row, in a navy dress.

Marissa sat behind us with her hands on her stomach.

Celia came in last, alone, and took a seat on the aisle.

She sat on neither side of the room.

They brought Lyle in wearing a county jumpsuit, and his hair had been cut short.

It made him look younger.

He saw me and did not smile.

The judge was the woman from the bail hearing, and she let the prosecutor read the counts into the record.

Conspiracy to commit assault.

Larceny of sixty-two million dollars.

Insurance fraud.

Forgery in the first degree, for the four hundred million.

"Does the victim wish to be heard?" the judge said.

I stood.

I did not use the cane.

I walked to the lectern on both legs, slowly, and the whole room watched me do it.

"I'm Tobias Carrow," I said. "I was adopted by this family when I was nine."

"I sat with my grandfather every Sunday for twenty years. Lyle sat with him twice."

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