Condemned by My Sister novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: Sentencing

The jury took three hours, and the sentencing was set for a gray Tuesday in the same courthouse where I had once stood in a borrowed shirt.

I recognized the door, and the brass handle with the dent in it.

I had been eighteen when I went through it.

Marianne went through it now at the front of the room, in her black suit, and sat behind the prosecutor.

Corbin sat at the other table in a gray jacket.

The cane was gone, and a cast covered his left wrist from the fall.

He did not look at her.

The judge was a gray-haired woman with half-moon glasses and a flat voice.

"The jury has found the defendant guilty of conspiracy, bribery of a medical provider and obstruction," she said. "I will hear the victim's family before I pass sentence."

The prosecutor stood.

"Your Honor, the state asks to enter Eli Thurlow's own words."

"What words?"

"Sixty letters, Your Honor. He wrote one a month, from his cell. The defendant kept them."

The judge looked down over her glasses.

"Read what you think matters," she said. "Briefly."

The prosecutor opened a folder and held a page in both hands.

"'Dear Marianne. It's the fourth winter.'"

"'They moved me to the laundry, and I like it. The sheets come out hot and everybody leaves me alone.'"

"'I sleep with one of the warm ones under my pillow. It smells a little like our house.'"

← Chapter 18 · All chapters · Chapter 20 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend