The Choices We Made novel · Chapter 21 of 24
Chapter 21: The Hearing
The courtroom was full by nine, and the hallway outside was full of cameras.
Eliza sat in the second row beside Weston, with her hands in her lap.
Behind them sat the housekeeper, the night guard, and the old charge nurse from the hospital in her good coat.
Mr. Kittredge sat across the aisle with two lawyers and no one else.
Constance had come alone and taken a seat at the very back, in gray, with her chin raised.
"All rise."
They led Gretchen in through the side door in a plain beige jumpsuit, and her wrists were cuffed.
Her hair had not been washed.
She did not look at the gallery. She looked at the floor in front of the bench.
The prosecutor, a tall man with a flat voice, read the charges in order.
Assault in the first degree on a pregnant woman.
Conspiracy to commit forgery.
Unlawful taking of a child.
At the last one Eliza felt Weston's hand close around hers, and she let it.
Gretchen's lawyer stood.
"Your Honor, my client is a woman with a documented history of anxiety and a medical condition that has caused her profound grief. We ask for bail, and a psychiatric evaluation."
"The state opposes both," the prosecutor said. "The defendant took a five-year-old from school with a forged letter, three days after a recorded confession."
"A confession," the lawyer said, "from a woman in distress."
"I'd like the court to hear it."
A clerk pressed a button.
Gretchen's voice filled the room, clear through the speaker.
I carried him out of that room myself. I wrapped him in my scarf. I gave her a son and she never once said thank you.
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