Page 83 (1/2)

“Miles,” Jude said “This is Dennis Uslan He’s the prosecuting attorney for our case ”

Miles looked at Dennis “I wasn’t ae had a case ”

Dennis rose froetting a lot of pressure froe Alexa Baill with DUI vehicular ho undertaking, and I wanted to knohere you stand on the idea ”

“What would happen to Lexi?” Miles asked

“If convicted, she could face h, admittedly, that outcoain to soh on the victim’s family ”

Jude flinched at the word victim

“I don’t think it will help anyone if Lexi goes to prison,” Miles said “We need to forgive her, not punish her Maybe other kids could learn from her mistake? She could—”

“Forgive her?” Jude couldn’t believe what her husband had just said

“Mrs Farraday,” Dennis asked, “what do you want?”

Jude knew the right answer, knehat she would have said before all of this, what she would have believed: that Miles was right Only forgiveness could ease Jude’s pain

But she wasn’t that wo Miles’s disappointment in her “What mother wouldn’t want that?”

In the nine days since high school graduation, Lexi had becoht and early for work at the ice cream shop, only to be told (kindly, but told just the same) that she’d been fired Try and understand, Mrs Solter had said, there’s a lot of anger against you in town right now It would be bad for business to have you working here

After that Lexi had stayed ho one book after another For the first time in years, she turned to Jane Eyre for coain when someone knocked on her door

“Lexi?”

“Yeah?