True Colours by Kristin Hannah

Author:Kristin Hannah
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781760551995
Publisher: Pan Macmillan UK

Chapter Sixteen

Tell him, Roy,” Vivi Ann said as they sat at the table in the small room across from the courtroom. “We can appeal this. That hair evidence was bogus science, and so what if he’s type O blood? And Myrtle couldn’t have seen him because he wasn’t there. It’s all circumstantial. There were other prints on the gun. We’ll appeal, right?”

Roy pulled away from the wall. He’d been standing as far from them as he could in the room, to give them a few precious moments before they came to take Dallas away. “I’ll file an appeal after sentencing. Probably next month. We have plenty of grounds.”

“Tell her what’s real in this world, Roy,” Dallas said.

“It’s difficult to overturn a conviction, it’s true. But it’s too early to give up,” Roy said, yet she could see how tired he was, how dispirited.

Vivi Ann stood up and faced her husband. She knew she needed to be strong for him, for them, but she felt herself weakening. “I understand why it’s hard for you to believe in things.” She stared at his face, trying to memorize every crease and line, so she could call on his image at night when she lay alone in their bed. “But I can believe. Let me. Lean on me. I’ll show you…”

He closed the distance between them, kissed her with a strange gentleness. She knew what it was, what it meant. “Don’t kiss me goodbye,” she whispered.

“It is goodbye, baby.”

“No.”

“You were more than I ever hoped for. I want you to know that.”

A knock at the door sounded like gunfire in the quiet. Roy crossed the room, opened the door.

Aurora stood there, holding Noah, who pointed immediately at Dallas and said, “Dada.”

“Christ,” Dallas said softly.

Aurora brought Noah over and put him in Dallas’s arms. He clung to his son, pressing his lips to the silky black hair, breathing in deeply. “Tell him I loved him.”

“You tell him,” Vivi Ann said, dashing away tears with her sleeve. “We’ll visit you every Saturday until they let you out.”

Dallas kissed Noah’s pudgy cheek and then pulled Vivi Ann closer. For one heartbreakingly perfect moment, they were together, the three of them, like it was supposed to be, and then he drew back.

He placed Noah in Vivi Ann’s arms and said, “I won’t let him see me in prison. Never. If you bring him I won’t come out of my cell. I know what it’s like for a kid to have his old man behind bars.”

“But… how will he know you?”

“He won’t,” Dallas said, then he turned to Roy. “Tell them I’m ready to go now.”

Vivi Ann wanted to throw herself at him, to block his path and cling to his leg and beg him not to go, but she couldn’t make any part of her move. “Dallas,” she whispered, crying so hard now he was a blur of black and white, a sliver of movement against the wooden wall. She didn’t blink or breathe or wipe her eyes, afraid that at the smallest movement, he’d disappear.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.