Chapter 10: The Last Thing Brent Said
The sentencing was on a Thursday.
Mason and Emma sat in the third row.
Lily was at school — they had agreed she didn't need to be there.
She had already done her part.
Diane sat at the table to the left.
Brent's attorney sat to the right.
Brent was between them in a gray suit that looked slightly too large, as if he'd lost weight since it was bought.
The judge was methodical.
She read through the counts.
She noted the cooperation of the co-defendant.
She noted the impact on the victim — Emma, who had submitted a written statement that Diane had helped her draft and that Mason had read three times the night before it was filed.
Then she asked Brent if he had anything to say before sentencing.
Brent stood.
He looked at his prepared notes.
Then he set them face-down on the table.
"I told myself it was temporary," he said.
"I told myself I'd fix it before anyone got hurt.
I told myself Mason would understand — that family works things out." He stopped.
"I was wrong about all of it."
He didn't look at Mason.
He looked at Emma.
"I knew you were alone.
I knew Mason was overseas.
And I used that." His voice was steady but thin.
"There's no version of this where I'm not the person who did that.
I know that now."
He sat down.
The judge sentenced him to four years.
Eligibility for parole after two, contingent on full cooperation with the financial recovery process and completion of a court-mandated program.
Mason watched his brother stand when the judge finished.
He thought about the thunderstorm again.
The bedroom door.
The way Brent had climbed in without asking and they'd both lain there in the dark, not speaking, until it passed.
He let himself think about it for exactly as long as it took Brent to walk out of the courtroom.
Then he let it go.
May you like
Emma's hand found his under the table.
He turned his palm up and held on.
