Chapter One
Sandy's P.O.V.
I sighed heavily while checking my watch for the fourth time in the last ten minutes. I was sitting in the visitor area at the women's jail in Fresno, California waiting for the gaurds to bring out the inmate. I had to beg the guard to let me see the woman being as it was so late and visitation ended hours ago. It had been a very long day for me starting at five o-clock that morning when my rambunctious four year old son had decided that he was tired of sleeping and since he was up we had to be up too. Thinking about my son put a tired smile on my face he's so much like me that it's almost unbelievable.
Sighing again I started flipping through the womans case file I had already read it before I came over here but I was looking for anything to keep me occupied so I wouldn't stare at my watch. I didn't want to be here in this dingy place when I could be at home with my wife and son curled up on the couch eating takeout and watching a movie. It was people like this woman that kind of made me hate this job. Been in and out of jails since she was eighteen juvy before that for a wide variety of different crimes. This latest one was for possesion of cocaine,marijuana, and herione and prostitution. She was only twenty-five years old and had a file so thick that it was almost heavy. She had a son that would now be seven or eight years old that was taken away when he was an infant because he was severely neglected. The file said that when they found him he was ten months old and weighed barely over ten pounds.
It makes me sick at my stomach to think about that poor baby and what he went through and how he must have been treated. I sighed again hoping that I could be nice to this woman after all that she has done. Finally I heard the door open and saw the guard bring her out. She looked a mess with her hair all matted to her forehead from sweat either from the heat in that place or a sign of withdrawl. Her makeup that had probably been just tacky before looked downright terrible. She walked in standing tall and proud like she was okay with all that she had done like she felt no remorse. Yeah I really disliked this woman the more I looked at her she had a smug smile that I would have just loved to slap off her face. I would never raise my hand to a woman but this woman just rubbed me the wrong way.
"Mrs. Atwood I'm Sandy Cohen from the public defenders office. I will be taking over your case." I said in the most controlled voice that I could muster to this terrible woman. She looked at me rolled her eyes then sat down and lit a cigarette. "Okay then let's just get started. Um I see here that you have been in jail before and right now from where I'm sitting you are looking at five to ten years in prison. I can try to make a deal and get it reduced but you are still going to do time in federal prison." I said in what I hoped was a voice that did not say all the things I really wanted to. For the first time since she walked in here the woman actually looked kind of scared of what she was facing. "Good," I thought to myself.
She looked like she had something to say but I started talking again explaining all the particulars in her case and when the court date was. Finally I was done and I stood up to leave. "I'll see you on the twenty-third Mrs. Atwood," I said while walking away. I was almost to the door when a voice stopped me. "Sir what about my son?" She asked in a voice so low that I could barely make out what she had said. I turned to look at her and said, "I'm sorry ma'm but there is nothing I can do about your son. He's probably been adopted by now." Then she said the words that changed my life forever. "No not him my other son, Ryan."