His Healing Touch novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: Exhibit C

Family court smelled like old carpet and wet umbrellas.

The hearing was set for two in the afternoon, thirty-one hours after the envelope, because the other side had called it an emergency.

Stewart sat beside his lawyer at the left table in a dark suit with his hands flat on the wood.

I sat behind him in the first row in the navy dress I'd worn to the party.

I had washed it in his sink.

Freddie was across the street with the retired nurse I trusted, who had offered to keep him home from school.

The petitioner's table across the aisle held two lawyers in sharp suits and an empty chair.

"Where's Helena?" I whispered.

"Her lawyers say she's abroad," Stewart said without turning. "She appears by counsel. She hasn't been in a room with Freddie in two years."

The judge came in, a woman in her sixties with reading glasses on a chain, and everyone stood.

"I've read the motion," the judge said. "It's thin, but it's alleged to be urgent. Counsel for the petitioner."

The taller of the two lawyers rose.

"Your Honor, the father has placed a seven-year-old autistic child in the care of a married woman he met four days ago," he said. "She has no clinical employment, she has been separated from her husband for less than a week, and she is now sleeping under the child's roof."

A small ripple went through the gallery.

"She is a stranger to the child," he went on. "And she is, we will show, not stable."

My face went hot.

Stewart's lawyer stood.

"Your Honor, may Ms. Tennant address the court?"

"If she's under oath."

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