Chapter 6 - LORRAINE FINALLY SAW THE COURTROOM
Lorraine refused a plea.
She wanted trial.
Her attorney argued that locking Mia in the closet had been misguided discipline, not criminal cruelty.
The prosecutor played the shopping footage.
Lorraine checking the monitor.
Cassandra laughing.
The volume being turned down.
Then photographs of the closet.
No ventilation.
No water.
No toilet.
The jury did not take long.
I testified.
Jackson did too.
That mattered most.
Lorraine stared at him when he walked to the stand.
Her own son.
The prosecutor asked:
“Did your wife previously express concerns about leaving Mia alone with your mother?”
Jackson said:
“Yes.”
“Did you dismiss them?”
“Yes.”
“Did your mother ever previously leave Mia unattended?”
Silence.
Then:
“Yes.”
Lorraine’s face changed.
He told the truth.
All of it.
Even the part that made him look terrible.
Especially that part.
After court, he vomited in a trash can.
I stood ten feet away.
Did not comfort him.
Did not punish him.
Let him carry it.
Lorraine was convicted.
The sentence included incarceration, probation conditions, and a strict no-contact order involving Mia.
No dramatic life imprisonment.
No cinematic excess.
Real consequences.
Cassandra received a lesser sentence because of cooperation.
Neither saw Mia.
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That was permanent as far as I was concerned.
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