They Left Me at the Canyon, So I Came Back for the Wedding novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: The Hearing

The courtroom was smaller than I expected, with a flag, a clock and six rows of wooden benches.

Joanna was already at the front table.

She wore a gray cardigan and no makeup, and she looked about nineteen.

Diane sat in the first row behind her with a purse on her knees.

Neither of them looked at me when I came in.

Brett wasn't there.

Rachel had told me he'd gone home Wednesday night with a small wire taped under his arm, and that he'd texted twice: Alive. Quiet.

Joanna's text, Where are you? Mom's. Now. Bring the car, I had shown to Rachel and the lawyer and then left unanswered.

I never answered it, and her answer to that was the petition on the table in front of me.

I sat at the other table with the lawyer Rachel's hospital had found me for a hundred dollars.

Behind me the benches filled.

I turned around, and my chest went tight.

Rachel was in the second row.

Beside her were four nurses from her ward, my old band-camp director, two of the senior trombones, and an aunt from Toledo I hadn't seen in years.

Carrie sat at the end of the row in a clean flannel with her braid pinned up.

She gave me a small nod.

"All rise," the clerk said.

The magistrate was a woman with white hair and no patience.

She read the petition aloud in a flat voice.

Joanna's lawyer stood.

"Your Honor, my client is a dental hygienist with no history of conflict. She was abandoned by her fiance on a trip, and he has since appeared at her mother's home and followed her to a venue. She's terrified."

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