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Love to Hatred Turned: Scene 39
As the elevator whisked her to the fourteenth floor of the court building, Jen counted on her fingers how long it had been since she had seen Sean. As it was now August, it had been ten months. Ten months since she’d dropped him off at work the day he was arrested.
Julie Church’s initial defence strategy was to have Sean declared either unfit to stand trial or not criminally responsible, based on his brain injury. The required evaluation delayed the trial by two months from its original June date, and, ultimately, went nowhere when Sean realized that if successful, they would send him to a psychiatric institute — basically a prison hospital. He’d taken his chances on a regular prison instead.
Jen was glad that this trial date was finally here. The delay was an added stress for her. And, although the divorce decree came through a month ago, without Sean’s trial and hopeful conviction, she could not settle. She was nervous about seeing him after all this time, or maybe more like him seeing her.
However, she didn’t want her first sight of him to be as she walked in to give testimony, so she snuck into the courtroom and took a seat at the back of the public gallery. As the start time approached, the sheriff led Sean into the dock. Dressed in a suit, hair neat, and clean-shaven, he outwardly looked as he always had. But there was something…