Broken Country (Reese’s Book Club)

11. The Trial

The Trial

Heads turned to look at me when I took my place in the public gallery. I have a new identity now. The woman who loved two men, one of them worthy of pages of newsprint, the other an ordinary farmer.

When the story first broke, photographers snuck out to the farm for shots of our beloved, ramshackle house with its peeling windows and chaotic yard until I spied them from the kitchen and ran out, screaming like a wild woman. Next day, that was the photo they chose. I learned the hard way to conceal my face and never answer the questions they hurl at me. Why did he do it? The question I’m asked most often. From reporters, villagers, friends, even my own family at the beginning.

I tell them the story we have come up with, honed, practiced, perfected, day after day after day, hoping it will be enough.

How much easier it would be if we could tell the truth.