Daily Flash Fiction Challenge

         Lifting his face, the judge peered over his glasses and said, “Twenty-five years fixed, ten years indeterminate, you are remanded over to the state correctional department forthwith. Next case.”
         Julie sat chained within the prison bus thinking as it rocked its way across the empty dessert. Murder; they’d set it up so perfectly. She hadn’t seen it until Don kissed her now, ex-friend and lawyer, Joan at the sentencing.
         Don had taken her shooting that morning; her prints were on the shell casings at the scene. She fell asleep, alone, right after Joan had left her house that afternoon. Then the text messages that were on her phone, which she never understood and couldn’t explain till now. All the evidence pointed to her. His alleged affair with his partner; the windfall that they would gain with her out of the way was all pointed out at trial.
         His alibi was air tight; he was with Joan at her office at the time of the murder. Discussing how to go about helping Julie out of her deep paranoia and depression they had testified. A desperate wife, clinging irrationally to her husband, the prosecution said in closing arguments. The jury had believed it even though all evidence was circumstantial.
         Julie closed her glistening eyes; her head leaned against the window as the bus rocked its way further into the hot lonely desert. She pictured Joan kissing Don, and then turn smile and wink at her as the bailiff led her away. "I am so naïve, I should have never trusted you", she mumbled between silent sobs.
         Suddenly she sat upright, clenched her teeth and said, “This is not over, Sister! Not by a long shot!” Only now she had plenty of time to plan exactly how to reveal the truth of things.

Word Count: 300

Prompt: I should have never trusted you