There was no trial in the end, no drawn-out spectacle, and I was glad of that, because a trial would have meant Bruno’s death being fought over in public, and he had been through enough.

A guilty plea meant the truth was simply, finally, on the record — entered, official, permanent.

It meant that the thing they had tried to erase could never be erased again.

Chapter 18 — The Sentences

Camellia was sentenced to fifteen years for criminally negligent homicide.

I felt no triumph when it was read out, and I want to be honest about that, because triumph would have been obscene.