knuckles whitened.
I winced.
She twisted.
“Stop fighting us.”
Then Daniel entered the frame.
He did not pull his wife away.
He looked at me and said, “Mom, you’re making this worse.”
The video stopped.
No one spoke.
Vanessa’s attorney—
No.
She didn’t have her own attorney.
Not yet.
That realization appeared on her face too.
Curtis whispered urgently to Daniel.
Judge Mercer folded his hands.
“Mrs. Vance, was that the incident responsible for the wrist injury?”
“Yes.”
“And the shoulder?”
“Different day.”
I played another clip.
This one was shorter.
Daniel blocking the hallway.
Me trying to reach Robert’s office.
His voice low.
“Where is the original trust?”
“I told you. That is none of your business.”
“I’m your son.”
“You’re also forty-four years old. Stop behaving like an heir at a funeral.”
He shoved me.
Not violently enough to throw me across the room.
Just hard enough.
