Then, just as Hensley was beginning his closing remarks on “stability,” a small voice interrupted.
“Excuse me.”
At first I thought I had imagined it because my nerves had become a live wire. Then I saw every adult head turn in the same direction.
Lily was standing.
She stood beside the bench where she had been sitting quietly with her rabbit in her lap, her pale blue dress smooth under the courtroom lights, her curls slightly flattened from the car ride. Her hands were trembling, but her chin was up. I had never seen her look so small and so determined at the same time.
Judge Tanner’s expression changed immediately. Something in him softened.
“Yes, sweetheart?” he said.
Lily swallowed. “May I show you something that Mom doesn’t know about, Your Honor?”
My entire body went cold.
I turned to her so fast my chair scraped the floor. “Lily—”
Margaret touched my arm lightly, a warning.
What did she mean? What didn’t I know? My mind flashed wildly through impossible possibilities. Had Mark spoken to her? Had she seen something? Had she been coached? Had I missed some danger moving right under my nose because I was too busy surviving my own fear?