handed a different case from the one he had prepared.
“You told two children their mother was dead,” the judge said.
Claire’s lips parted, but no words came.
“Why?”
Her answer came so softly that at first I thought I had misheard it.
“Because Evan told me to.”
I felt Elise shift beside me.
Nathan stood halfway before catching himself. “That’s not true.”
The judge’s gaze snapped to him.
He sat, shaking.
Claire turned slightly, not toward Nathan, not toward the judge, but toward me. Her eyes found mine across the courtroom.
For one moment, the woman from the airport disappeared. In her place was someone cornered by a truth she had buried badly.
“Evan said she was dangerous,” Claire whispered. “He said the children couldn’t know. He said if Anna came back, we had to protect them.”
Elise’s hand closed over her pen.
The judge leaned forward slightly. “And
