Queen Never Cry novel · Chapter 7 of 32

Chapter 7: Revocation

Courtroom 402 smelled of floor wax and coffee.

It was the room where I had been sentenced.

I had to walk past the defense table to reach my chair.

I did not look at it.

Hester sat in the front row with her cane across her knees.

Garret sat beside her, in a suit this time, and she had already told him twice to sit up straight.

Behind them the gallery was packed.

Reporters filled two benches, and the rest were mothers from Lakeview Day School, and a few faces from the gala.

Desmond sat at the petitioner's table with Lydia beside him.

Lydia wore navy this morning and no jewelry at all.

Her eyes were red, and I knew exactly how she had done it.

"All rise," said the bailiff.

The judge, a thin woman with silver glasses, took her seat and opened the file.

"This is an emergency motion to revoke parole," she said. "Mr. Roarke, you may proceed."

Desmond took the stand and told it beautifully.

He said he had spent two years rebuilding his daughter's life.

He said that on Friday afternoon I had waited outside her school and lured the child into traffic.

He said that on Friday night I had burst into a charity gala and snatched a necklace from his wife.

He spoke slowly, his voice cracking in all the right places.

"I'm not a cruel man, Your Honor," he said. "I only want my daughter safe."

Lydia dabbed her eyes.

Two of the mothers in the gallery nodded.

I kept my hands folded on the table.

When he finished the judge looked over her glasses.

"Ms. Corrigan's counsel?"

I had no counsel.

The public defender assigned to my parole review stood up, a young man with a rumpled tie.

"We have a witness and two videos, Your Honor."

The crossing guard went first, in her yellow vest, gripping her stop sign even on the stand.

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