He Left Me Pregnant at Her Funeral, Now His Son Needs Him novel · Chapter 31 of 32

Chapter 31: Sentencing

The county courtroom smelled of floor wax and old radiators.

Vaughn sat behind me in the second row with his hands on his knees.

He had asked if he should come, and I had told him he could, as long as he sat where I could not feel him.

Ansley's mother sat across the aisle, in gray, alone.

Kendra was led in at nine in a navy suit someone had brought her.

She did not look at the gallery.

The judge read the charges aloud in a flat voice.

Placing a recording device in a child's toy.

Filing a false report with child services.

Taking and destroying another person's mail.

Kendra stood with her hands clasped and said "guilty" to each of them, and each time it was quieter.

"Ms. Haskell," the judge said. "You've asked to speak."

I stood.

My legs were steadier than I had expected.

I had written a statement the night before, on the porch, and I left it folded in my pocket.

"Kendra Lowell broke into my grandmother's house," I said. "She put a microphone next to my son's face. She told child services I was an unfit mother, and she knew it was a lie."

"She took a letter I wrote to the father of my child, and she sent it back, and she let me believe he threw it away."

"My son spent the first five years of his life without his father because of that stamp."

Vaughn made a small sound behind me.

I did not turn around.

"I'm not here to ask for the longest sentence," I said. "The longest sentence won't give back the five years."

"I'm here to ask this court to make her get help. Real help, the kind where someone checks."

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