She had spent too many years in litigation to waste a cross-examination on unprepared witnesses.
Nikki left around seven-thirty, brushing past Carissa with a nervousness she tried to disguise as irritation. Damen showered and then moved toward the bedroom like the day had ended in his favor.
Carissa stood in the doorway and blocked him.
“No,” she said.
He blinked at her. “Move.”
“No.”
He looked genuinely startled. That told her how often she had made herself easier to handle.
“I’m not doing this,” he said.
“We are absolutely doing this.”
He sighed, the sigh of a man exhausted by consequences arriving on time. “Carissa, you’re taking this somewhere insane.”
“Then stop me with the truth.”
“We told you the truth.”
“Then say it cleanly,” she said. “Why did you touch my sister’s face like that?”
He crossed his arms. “Because we were practicing.”
“Why did you both jump apart?”
“Because you walked in looking like a prosecutor.”
“You still haven’t denied that something is going on.”
His jaw tightened. “Because there is nothing going on.”
“Look me in the eye and say you are not sleeping with Nikki.”
He looked at her. He looked away.
That was enough.