Chapter 15: The Affair

Alma's POV

Soledad came to court in pearls.

She sat at the petitioner's table in a navy suit, her silver hair set and her hands folded.

When I walked in with Emiliano, she smiled at me.

It was the third week of September.

Camila was with my seventy-eight-year-old neighbor, and I had pumped enough for two bottles and left a list.

The petition had come by courier on a Tuesday.

Soledad Aldama, as paternal grandmother, asked the court to find me an unfit custodian.

She wanted Camila placed in the care of the family.

Her lawyer, a tall man with a soft voice, rose first.

"Your Honor, the evidence will show that Ms. Tejeda abandoned a stable home three days after a surgical delivery."

"I left a stable home," I said, under my breath.

Emiliano touched my sleeve.

I stopped.

"She has since exposed the child to a series of men," the lawyer went on.

"She was photographed at her door, at night, with a single adult male."

"She has been seen leaving that same man's home at two in the morning."

I felt my face go hot.

I had walked out of that truck with my hair down, and someone had been waiting with a camera.

Of course someone had.

"Count the pictures," I whispered.

The lawyer placed an envelope on the clerk's desk.

It was a plain manila envelope, not black, and not sealed in wax.

It was worse.

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