For the first time in my life, he looked like a man standing on a piece of land he could no longer control.

At five o’clock, I sat across from Prosecutor Sarah Jenkins in her third-floor office at the District Attorney’s headquarters downtown.

Sarah laid two blue folders on her desk, lining up their edges with a clean wooden ruler.

“Chloe was formally booked twenty minutes ago,” Sarah said, tapping her pen on the top folder.

“Given the audio recording and the prior incidents on record, the defense is offering a guilty plea to felony assault.”

“What’s the recommended sentence?” I asked.