He Sent Every Dollar, So Why Was My Daughter Starving? novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Courthouse Hallway

Emmeline's POV

For six days Kurt would not let me say it.

Every time I opened my mouth, he put a finger on my lips and said, "After the hearing."

I did not understand him.

I thought he was afraid to hear it.

On Friday morning he held my hand all the way up the courthouse steps.

Maisy stayed home with a neighbor who had known me since I was a girl.

The hallway outside Courtroom B was crowded.

A bailiff stood by the door.

A clerk shuffled files on a cart.

Two women from my old church sat on a bench and pretended not to stare.

Lowell Bissell was already there in a charcoal suit, with his lawyer beside him and a blue folder under his arm.

Tanya stood a few feet behind them in a plain black dress, her eyes red and her chin high.

She would not look at me.

"Sergeant," Lowell said, and walked over with his hand out.

Kurt did not take it.

"Let's not do this in front of a child's whole town," Lowell said, and lowered his voice. "I'll be fair. The test is back."

"What test?" I said.

"I had one run, from a cup she drank from at my counter." His face stayed calm. "I'm sorry, Emmeline. It came back a match. I am her father."

The world went white at the edges.

I had known it for six days, and it still hit me in the knees.

A woman on the bench said, "Oh, honey."

My purse strap was in my hand, and I could not feel it.

"She has to hear it, Sergeant," Lowell said, gentle and sad. "You do, too. That little girl isn't yours. Your wife has been lying to you for five years, and I'm sorry to be the one to say it in a hallway."

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