I had begun to check my own perceptions against Roman’s version before I would let myself believe them, had begun to assume, when my eyes and his words disagreed, that my eyes were the liars.

He had not just deceived me.

He had recruited me into deceiving myself, made me the chief warden of my own confusion, so that he barely had to lie anymore because I would explain his lies away on his behalf before he even asked.

That is why the judge’s reading of that evidence, item by documented item, was so much more than a legal victory.

It was the return of my own mind.