In Sickness and in Lies novel · Chapter 18 of 32

Chapter 18: Sign Here

The hearing was at nine, in a courtroom with a low ceiling and a flag.

Desmond sat at the petitioner's table in a charcoal suit.

His lawyer in the camel coat sat beside him with two folders and a laptop.

I sat at the other table between my litigator and the empty chair she'd kept for Bruce, who stood against the back wall because his hospital had called him in at seven and he'd come anyway.

The judge was a gray-haired woman in rimless glasses.

She read the petition without hurrying.

"Counsel for the petitioner," she said. "You allege Mrs. Keane cannot manage her own affairs."

"Yes, Your Honor. We have photographs and a recorded public outburst."

"Show me."

He put the photographs up on the screen.

There was the card with Desmond's name crossed out.

There was the dinner, filmed from a phone across the long table.

There was a man's hand around my bandaged one.

The judge looked at each picture for a while.

"These were taken by whom?" she asked.

"A private investigator retained by my client."

"Following his wife."

"Out of concern."

"I see." She turned a page. "Mrs. Keane, would you stand?"

I stood.

My knees held.

"Do you understand what this petition asks?"

"It asks you to give my husband control of everything I own."

"Do you own anything?"

"I own two hundred and twelve dollars," I said. "And, according to the bank, about two hundred and eighty thousand more that he hasn't spent yet."

There was a small noise from the back.

I think it was Bruce.

"Do you manage your mother's care?"

"Yes."

"Did you read this petition?"

"Every page. Twice."

The judge took off her glasses.

My litigator passed up the signed revocation, the bank's freeze notice and the sixteen releases, and the judge read the dates against each other for a long time.

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