AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“He’s got grandsons,” Dickerson muttered. “All I’m saying is don’t give up. You’re a good man. You came in one person, and you’re not him anymore. You did what we hope everyone will do when they come to prison.”
“What’s that?” Nate asked, surprised by this more human side of the warden. He’d never seen it before.
“You didn’t leave the same way you came in.”
Nate wanted to say he hadn’t left yet, but he couldn’t. He had left. He’d gone to Hope Eternal Ranch, and everything inside him wanted to go back there again. Brush down those horses. Pick up that hammer and fix the leaning wall of the bird blind. Hold Ginger’s hand on that dusty road, and kiss her in the shade of those windfall trees.
A tiredness pulled through his whole body as he nodded. “Thanks, Warden. I’m sorry I made you look bad.”
“Oh, you didn’t,” the warden said.
“Someone looked bad with what happened,” Nate said.
“Yeah,” Warden Dickerson said. “But not really. What we got to show the public was that our residential programs have failsafes in place, and the system works. Ginger called. We came. You got apprehended.”
“I came back,” Nate said dryly.
The Warden grinned and pocketed the handcuffs meant to go around Nate’s wrists. “And it all worked out.”
Sure, Nate thought. Everything seemed to work out for everyone but him. He knew that was his fault, though, and he was going to own the decisions he’d made that had gotten him to this point in his life.
They walked down the hall together, and the Warden handed Nate the cuffs at the exit. He couldn’t go walking around the grounds without being restrained, but the Warden let Nate put the cuffs on himself, so they weren’t terribly tight.
He rode to the courthouse, the sun reminding him that the world hadn’t come to an end. He went inside through a side door, and he sat at the table with Lawrence, who looked at him with pinched lines around his eyes, almost a glare of annoyance though Nate kept his bills paid.
Nate didn’t have to apologize to his lawyer, so he didn’t. At the same time, he’d probably cost the man a lot of sleepless nights, so he leaned close to Lawrence and said, “I’m sorry, Lawrence. How are things going with the adoption?”
“They’re on hold,” Lawrence said. “Depending on what happens today, we’ll see what I can do.”
Nate nodded, and Judge Billings came through the corner door, and everyone rose. Nate had been in court many times, and he could stand and sit without specific direction from his brain. The judge read the issue at hand, and Lawrence stood up.
“I want to hear from Nathaniel,” Judge Billings said. His eyes bored a hole into Nate’s. “Step up to the mic, son.”
It had been a very long time since anyone had called Nate “son,” but he did what the judge asked. “You left the center with the child you’ve been entrusted with?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Why?”
Nate held his head high as he related the same story he’d given to Ginger, and Nick, and the Warden. His Lawyer. His mother. Spencer. Ward, though his brother hadn’t responded.
“So you went to rescue the person you’d drawn into your scheme?”
“It wasn’t a scheme, Your Honor,” Nate said. “This particular investment and payout was legal. It was Oscar who didn’t want the full payment in one lump sum. I guess he can’t move that much cash safely, and that is not my fault.”
“We’ll agree to disagree on that, Mister Mulbury,” the judge said, glancing down. “All right. Do you have anyone present in the courtroom today to speak for you?”
Nate didn’t even have to check behind him. His parents wouldn’t make such a long drive for a hearing like this. Bethany had her hands full. Nate was on his own, and he felt it more keenly in that moment than any other.
“No, sir,” he said, his throat tightening.
“Yes, he does,” someone said, and Nate spun around to see Warden Dickerson pushing his way into the courtroom.
“Warden, you can’t be a character witness for an inmate,” Judge Billings said.
“I’m not,” the Warden said. He stepped to the side, and Ginger stood there.
Nate’s heart swelled so big, it stuck in the back of his throat. That blasted hope that he hadn’t managed to scrub from his soul ballooned, lighting up the room and making his spirits soar. Their eyes met, and time slowed to nothing. Everything fell away, and it was just Ginger and Nate. Nate and Ginger.
“What’s your name, ma’am?” the judge asked.
Ginger cleared her throat and tugged on the hem of her pink blouse. She’d paired it with a black pencil skirt and a sensible pair of heels. She strode forward and said, “Ginger Talbot, sir. And I’m here as a character witness for Nathaniel Mulbury.”
