Chapter 13 - The Reckoning in Family Court and Criminal Trial
Six months later, the final sentencing hearings were held in Superior Court.
Mason, having spent half a year inside a secure juvenile evaluation facility stripped of his luxury electronics, private trainers, and coddling grandparents, sat slouched in a standard-issue orange jumpsuit. The arrogant smirk was completely gone, replaced by the hollow, defeated look of a boy who finally realized that actions carry irreversible consequences.
Judge Vance handed down the sentences with unyielding severity:
Mason Vance was adjudicated guilty of Felony Aggravated Battery and sentenced to three years in a secure, high-containment therapeutic juvenile correctional institution, with mandatory intensive psychological rehabilitation and five years of strict probation upon release. His dreams of elite prep school sports were officially extinguished forever.
Clara Vance was convicted of Felony Evidence Tampering, Defamation, and Child Endangerment, receiving a four-year sentence at the State Women’s Correctional Facility.
My father, Arthur Vance, was convicted of Felony Extortion and Witness Tampering, sentenced to three years in state prison, with his judicial pension permanently stripped by the State Ethics Board.
My mother, Evelyn Vance, was convicted of Accessory to Child Neglect and Tampering with Emergency Communications, receiving two years of home confinement, five hundred hours of community service, and a lifetime restraining order prohibiting her from ever coming within five hundred yards of Leo.
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As the bailiffs led Clara and my father away in chains through the heavy wooden side doors, Clara looked back at me one last time, her eyes filled with desperate, pleading tears.
I didn't blink. I didn't look away. I simply watched them walk out of my life forever.
