t the room turning around me, the

elf to concentrate on the face of the officer and de

kind of misu

d, my voice barely whisper. "

eyes cold and serious. There

man exploitation. You have the right to be silent. Everything

ct, my wrist was pulled behind my back, the c

d when I was led

***

I stood in the courtr

silence. "Will wit

ghtmare, they were there. Bruce, my h

together when a hot te

eamed? I couldn't un

the stage. She climbed up, her v

er to stop engaging in drug trafficking, but never listened. She was still pushing me to get involved, and when I refused, she started pushin

ouldn't breathe. That wa

word twisted into my

at the sadness that didn't belong to his face. His vo

o warn her to help her, but she was too far away. I never imagined that it would be involved in something like that. Drugs .

ear slid do

cried. Crocodile tears. I

ich offered their own piece of this terrible

on the other until thei

again, his voice

nt, Sophie Hendricks, has been sentenc

s, such as the death sentence

when everythin

the courtroom, the head spins, the world a

***

ing and my head pounded as m

f the hospital room, followed by a look at

nd relief of her voice said. "You fainte

es flooded back, but my body felt ha

pened?" I whispered

in court." You were under great stres

understand everything. "Test

nod

." And ... Well, we have som

egn

e Earth had fall

y heart lay in my ches

comfortable, but nod

d again and the

wore my child ... a man w

***

years

nd Ward's voice came down the

lled out of her language, as if it

since I was Sophie Hendricks,

nt. Lighter. Brighter. It was as if the weight of my past

the chains of my earlier life were finally re

her behavior, was a woman who organized my rise. It was the one that ensured that I would never survive

ut her eyes retained th

ack," she said, and her v

lled my lungs after five years of darkness. Everythi

pped. I wasn't just another face in the crowd. I

pull it out?" She

y lips curled into a confid