Chapter Thirty Nine
Cassian’s sentencing hearing fell on a gray Tuesday in late autumn, the courtroom considerably fuller than it had been for the trial itself, reporters and curious onlookers filling seats that had mostly sat empty during weeks of technical testimony.
Rafael sat in the front row beside Amara, Valentina on his other side, her presence there something she had insisted on despite her age and the toll the whole ordeal had visibly taken on her over the past months.
“I need to see this through,” she had told Rafael the night before. “He is my nephew. Whatever he did, I raised part of him, in a way. I owe it to Daniel Quinn’s memory to sit here and witness the consequences land.”
The judge reviewed victim impact statements before pronouncing sentence, Amara having submitted
