The Eight Year Ledger novel · Chapter 10 of 32

Chapter 10: Hearing One

I didn't say a word.

I listened to him breathe.

"Hello?" Todd said again, sharper. "Who is this?"

Then I hung up and put the phone face down on the invoice.

I sat at the table until the bus came at three-thirty, and I went out to meet Gabe like nothing had happened.

The courthouse was downtown, in Columbus, on the eleventh floor.

I wore my navy suit, the one from my father's funeral.

I brought two ledgers, this year's and last year's, in the canvas tote.

My lawyer took one look at the tote and nodded.

"Good," she said. "Say as little as you can. Let him talk."

Todd was already in the hallway outside the courtroom.

He was in a gray suit I'd picked out, with a tie Gabe had given him for Father's Day.

It had small cartoon dinosaurs on it.

He saw me and smiled sadly.

His lawyer was a tall man with very white teeth.

They went in first.

The courtroom was small and bright and smelled like carpet cleaner.

The judge was a woman in her sixties, with her reading glasses on a beaded chain.

She'd read the motion.

She said so, in a voice that made it clear she'd read a lot of motions.

Todd's lawyer went first.

He said Todd was a devoted father and a public servant.

He said the family had gone through a painful private matter, which had been made public through a technical accident.

"A technical accident," my lawyer repeated quietly, writing it down.

He said that since then, Mrs. Whitford had shown a pattern of erratic behavior.

He played the video.

There I was under the orange arch, holding up a receipt.

There I was saying I'd find every dollar.

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Eight Year Ledger from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.