Chapter 23: For the Child

The probate court was a small room on the second floor, with six chairs and a judge who had a cold.

Marissa sat at the petitioner's table in her camel coat, with her hands flat on the wood.

Lyle's lawyer sat across from her with a letter from his client refusing to resign.

I sat in the first row beside Hannah and kept my mouth shut, because the lawyer had asked me to.

"Mrs. Carrow," the judge said, and looked over the top of her tissue. "You wish to speak?"

Celia stood up from the back row.

I hadn't known she was there.

She walked to the front slowly, on her cane, and she did not look at me.

"My husband set up the trust for our daughter," she said.

"When he died, I signed the trusteeship over to my son."

"Why?"

"Because I was told it was the sensible thing."

She stopped and pressed her lips together.

"Because I preferred him," she said. "I'd like that written down."

The clerk's pen moved.

"My son is in prison for hiring a man to hurt his brother."

"I don't think he should hold my grandchild's money."

The judge blew her nose and wrote something down.

"The trusteeship is revoked," she said. "An independent bank will be appointed."

"Ms. Carrow, you control your own distributions as of today."

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