Chapter 21: Cal's POV: The Hearing

Cal's POV

The conciliation court was a beige room on the third floor of the county building, with a flag, a clock and twelve folding chairs.

I had been in a lot of rooms where somebody was about to take something from Lena.

This was the smallest.

I sat in the first row on her left, in the charcoal jacket, with my hands on my knees.

She wore a plain navy dress and her mother's pearls.

Hallie sat on her other side in scrubs, because she had come straight off a shift.

The photographer sat behind us with a laptop on his knees.

He had called on Sunday and said, "I have one more thing, and I'd like to bring it myself."

Lena had said yes before he finished.

Across the aisle, Gwendolyn sat alone at the plaintiff's table in a gray suit.

She had no lawyer, because the court didn't allow one, and she had no pearls.

She had never looked so thin.

Brooks sat in the back row by the door, with a shaved jaw and a tie, sober.

He didn't look at us.

The judge came in, a heavy man with reading glasses on a chain, and read the docket without lifting his eyes.

"Courtland versus Okerlund. One pearl necklace. Plaintiff, you're up."

Gwendolyn stood.

She folded her hands over the table, and her voice came out soft and sad.

"Your Honor, this is painful for me. I've been like a mother to Ms. Okerlund for five years."

"Ms. Courtland, what do you want from this court?"

"Mrs. Courtland. I want the family heirloom returned."

Keep reading free with an account. Start He Sent a Proxy Groom, So I Walked Away Forever from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.