“Of course,” I said. “Why do you ask?”
“No reason.”
But there was definitely a reason.
The courthouse was downtown, a wide stone building with tall steps and brass doors that always made me think of history and punishment. The inside smelled like paper, old wood, copier toner, and winter coats damp from the outside air. Everything echoed. Shoes. Coughs. Murmurs. Even fear seemed louder there.
Margaret met us in the hallway outside the family courtroom, carrying two thick files and a paper cup of tea.
“You look beautiful, Lily,” she said warmly.
Lily offered a small smile.
Margaret bent slightly toward me and lowered her voice. “He brought extra counsel.”
“Of course he did.”
“Don’t let it rattle you.”
Then I saw him.
Mark stood across the hall near the courtroom doors in a dark suit I had bought him for a holiday party three years earlier. It still fit him perfectly. He was speaking with a tall attorney in an expensive gray tie and polished black shoes, the kind of man whose confidence arrived before he did. And beside them, her hand resting lightly on the strap of a cream handbag, was Kelly.
The floor shifted under me.