Chapter 20 - The Night Before Sentencing
Amara could not sleep.
Sentencing was tomorrow.
She had decided to attend.
Not because she owed the court her presence.
Because she wanted to hear the judge say what adults had refused to say in Room 214.
That Patricia did not own the room.
Did not own the money.
Did not own Amara’s body.
Denise found her in the kitchen.
“Milk?”
“I’m fourteen.”
“Fourteen-year-olds drink milk.”
“Not at midnight like a Victorian orphan.”
Denise laughed.
That helped.
They sat.
“Do you want her to go to prison?” Denise asked.
Amara thought carefully.
“Yes.”
“Do you feel bad saying that?”
“A little.”
“Why?”
“Because prison sounds terrible.”
“It probably is.”
“Do you want Calvin there?”
“He already is.”
“I know.”
Amara stared at the table.
“I don’t want them hurt.”
Denise waited.
“I want them stopped.”
That was the clearest version yet.
Across town Patricia sat in a detention cell writing her statement.
Version one blamed Calvin.
Her attorney rejected it.
Version two blamed administrative pressure.
Rejected.
Version three:
I regret that my attempts to protect school programs resulted in actions that caused distress.
Hale circled resulted.
“You caused it.”
Patricia frowned.
“This is semantics.”
“No.”
He tapped the paper.
“This is the entire case.”
She finally wrote:
I restrained Amara Lewis and falsely accused her because I wanted to frighten her into silence.
She stared at the sentence.
It looked alien.
Hale said:
“Continue.”
May you like
Patricia could not.
That was the closest she came to full ownership before court.
