The Mafia Wife's Revenge novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: I Will Never Forgive

The courtroom was the same one.

It had the same long oak benches and the same gray flag, and a clock above the door that ran three minutes fast.

Three years ago I had sat at the front of it with Damian's hand around mine, and I had heard none of it.

Today I walked in with my own two ears, and I heard every chair scrape.

Camilla sat at the defense table in a county jumpsuit with her hair pulled back.

Her lawyer had told her to look small.

She did not have to try.

Vernon sat beside her, gray in the face, in a cell-orange shirt a size too big.

Damian's seat was empty at that table, because the judge had ruled on his bail an hour before.

Remanded, with no bond, until trial in the spring.

His lawyer was in the back row.

The judge took the plea at ten.

"Ms. Lowe, you plead guilty to manslaughter in the second degree and leaving the scene."

"Yes," Camilla said, so softly that the clerk asked her to repeat it.

"Yes, Your Honor."

"Mr. Lowe, you plead guilty to tampering with evidence and hindering the prosecution."

"Yes," said Vernon.

The prosecutor rose.

"Your Honor, the victim's daughter has asked to be heard."

The judge looked over his glasses at me.

He remembered me.

He had been on the bench the day I signed.

"Ms. Ashworth," he said. "Take all the time you need."

I walked to the podium.

There was a microphone on it, and I did not need it.

"Three years ago I stood where I am standing now," I said. "I could not see you, and I could not hear you."

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