Cole’s POV

The courtroom is quieter than it has been on any other day, and that silence feels heavier than the shouting crowds, heavier than the chanting protesters, heavier even than the constant buzz of cameras and whispered speculation that surrounded this case from the very beginning, because this is not the kind of silence born of anticipation or fear, but the kind that settles when everyone present understands that the end has arrived and that whatever happens next will be permanent.

I ...