Have you ever.

Have you ever hated someone you wanted them …dead? I used to.

I’d like to think that the worst days of my life is over and the best…is yet to come I suppose. Last week, we finally paid a visit to the Supreme Court to attend the physical hearing for S. Mother was getting the jitters since this could potentially be the day we can finally find out how long S will be sentenced for. Prior to the hearing I did speak to our lawyers about mitigating the Prosecutor’s plea for 7-12 years. They told us they will try to mitigate for a 6-year sentence instead. When I conveyed that to Mother, she insisted to lower the plea to 5 years rather than 6 and so they did.

D-Day

As we entered the Supreme Court, L remarked that the place was so empty. “If this place was crowded, this country would be having some serious issues”, I told him. As we entered Court 6D for the hearing, I saw S already seated at the bench with a glass partition between us. In fact, the entire room was partitioned with a glass panel and we were guided to sit at the back with a couple of random strangers (supposedly reporters) at the viewing gallery. It was almost out of a Hong Kong courtroom drama, pretty cool ngl.

When the clock struck 10, the Judge came in and everyone stood up to bow to him, we followed suit as well. The Prosecution started off with the Statement Of Facts, running the Judge through the events that unfolded that fateful day. What surprised me was how Mother started sobbing non-stop as the Prosecutor spoke. Perhaps she has always been in an denial about what happened and when he started spilling the facts, it was almost too much to handle? I’m not sure but the policeman walked over to us to ask Mother if she needs to use the bathroom but she refused. I guess this added some brownie points in the Judge’s decision?

After an hour of back and forth between the Prosecution and our lawyers, the Judge called for a 15-minutes break before giving us his final decision. When the Prosecution said that, “If one found themselves in such a predicament, violence is never the answer”. That pissed me off. I guess he will never understand what we really went through and sometimes people only resort to violence when they have no other choice. Either way, our lawyer did good with the mitigation portion and I could tell the Judge was leaning more on our side instead of the Prosecutor’s. After the break, the Judge broke the news and sentenced S to 6 years. Why 6? I guess he felt that was the compromise between 5 and 7 perhaps?

“This was the best possible outcome”, I thought.

Honestly, S was hoping he gets a “single digit” sentence and Mother was ridiculously asking for 2 years at some point. True enough, for a 6-year sentence; he would have to sit for 4 years (after deducting the PH and stuff) and since he has been in remand for 2 years, he will be out in 2 years or so. Mum’s wishes actually came true, sort of. Istg she was praying at the Judge at some point, he’s literally playing the hands of God. The people in court disbanded and the Judge kindly gave us 15 minutes to talk to S afterwards. We went over and L was like, “ok 2 years ain’t too bad, let’s gooooo!!” HAHAHA S was also pretty pleased at the outcome and Mum was telling him how she will bring him overseas once he gets out. I quickly asked my lawyers if S is allowed to travel when he comes out, they told me he will be tagged for a year so no traveling during that period of time and once the year has passed, he can travel whenever. That’s gonna be a problem though but we shall address it when the time comes.

Nevertheless, we bade our goodbyes and soon enough my uncle has already texted me saying they are so glad about the outcome. Apparently, I was right, the strangers were from media outlets and they were so fast at sending the news out, well she did have a laptop so…yeah. I did see the article and I knew everything that happened but I felt that this was S’s story to tell. “Touching” as it may be to some, this person has never apologized for anything in his life and only on his death bed he decided to apologize to S. You can argue that it’s their first time being parents or even being in this world but I don’t think that’s a all-free pass to hurt people either. They are right, the dead gets to get away from everything scot free while we have to pick up the pieces they broke. That said, this is the best possible outcome for everyone.

Now that we have an end goal in mind, Mother has started making plans for S when he gets back which is nice. On a side note, I have never really spoken to my neighbor and just yesterday she came and said hi. She asked me if my brother will be ok, I told her yes he is. The darkest periods of our lives might be over but I’m starting to think that there are plenty of people out there rooting for us. That I’m very thankful for. Life has been an ordeal of one crisis to another and I’m not ngl I’m very surprised I managed to survive it all. My birthday just passed and sometimes I get so emotional thinking about how kind and supportive the people around me have been. There are bad days but I think I’m slightly happier now.

Life was supposedly a series of goal posts; getting married, having kids, etc but now that I got ‘younger’ I think the most important decision you make in your life if you choose to get married is who you choose as a partner. I might not have that courage to commit to such a decision; but that’s ok. Live your own life!!! Now off to Chiangmai!!!! kekeke

Love,

D