There was the story I told Judge Miller in that courtroom.
It was true.
But it wasn’t the whole truth.
The whole truth was messier, harder to explain, and something I had been trying to understand myself for three weeks before the state’s attorney finished speaking and the courtroom finally became quiet.
Then Judge Miller leaned forward and looked at me.
Not casually.
He looked at me with the expression of someone who had spent decades deciding whether people were sincere or simply performing sincerity.
My name is Carter.
I
