I Was Never One of Them novel · Chapter 19 of 24
Chapter 19: The Hearing
Rhys's POV
I had stood in this courtroom twice before, and both times I had looked at the table.
This time I looked at the judge.
Hazel sat behind me in the first row, in her work blazer, with her mother's veil folded in her lap.
I could feel her there.
Across the aisle sat Constance's lawyers, three of them, in matching gray, and behind them the whole circle.
The wives had their phones out.
None of them were pointed at me.
They were pointed at the door, where the clerk kept saying a name over and over.
"All rise."
The judge took her seat and looked at the file for a long time.
"Counsel for the Lockridge family has petitioned to revoke Mr. Briggs's parole," she said. "On the grounds of contact with a victim's family member. I have also been shown a video that has been viewed, as of this morning, nine million times."
The lawyer stood.
"Your Honor, that video is a spliced and unverified recording obtained by a disgruntled former employee. We ask the court to disregard it entirely."
"Is it spliced?"
"We believe so."
"Does anyone in this room dispute that the voice in it belongs to Mr. Briggs?"
Nobody spoke.
The judge turned her chair a little.
"Mr. Briggs. Stand up."
I stood.
"Eight years ago you stood in front of a judge and did not say a word. I have read the transcript." She looked at me over her glasses. "Is that your voice on the recording?"
My throat closed.
For eight years I had practiced not answering that question.
I had practiced it in a cell, in a truck, at a stove, in front of a mirror, in every hour I spent trying to be a man with nothing to say.
Behind me I heard Hazel breathe.
"Yes, Your Honor," I said.
"Is what it shows true?"
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