My Husband Framed Me for His Mistress's Crash novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: Sentencing

Melanie went first.

She stood at the defense table in a gray jail cardigan, with the public defender at her side.

Her hands were folded in front of her.

She had pleaded guilty in January to vehicular manslaughter, leaving the scene and tampering with evidence.

Today the judge would say how long.

The gallery was full again. In the front row sat a small gray-haired woman in a black coat, holding a dented aluminum lunch pail on her lap.

It was the widow of the man on Alder Lane.

I had met her once, in a hallway.

I had told her I was sorry for what was done to her husband, and that I would be in the room every time.

I sat three seats from her now.

"Ms. Mullins," the judge said. "Do you wish to say anything before I pass sentence?"

Melanie turned, not toward the judge but toward the front row.

"I don't have a good word for what I did," she said. "I've tried every one. I took your husband from you, and then I tried to hide it."

"I'll spend the rest of my life knowing his name."

The widow did not move. Her knuckles were white on the lunch pail.

"The State recommends a reduced term for her cooperation," the deputy attorney general said. "The family does not object."

The widow nodded once, a short sharp nod.

"Three years," the judge said, "and mandatory restitution to the family. Ms. Mullins, you came forward when it cost you. That is the only reason it is not more."

Melanie let her breath out. She looked across the room at me, and I gave her a nod too.

It wasn't forgiveness, but it was acknowledgment.

Then the bailiff brought Marshall in.

He was in an orange jumpsuit, and he was thinner. His hair had gone entirely silver.

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