On Halloween, My Husband Chose Her Family Over Ours novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: The Stairwell

The emergency hearing was short.

Colleen came in a gray suit this time, with her hair down and a folded tissue in her hand.

Her lawyer called the neighbor, the woman from across the street, and asked her what she had seen.

"I saw Mrs. Marsden on her porch," the woman said. "I saw her point at the street."

"Did you see her strike Ms. Fraser?"

"Well." The woman looked at the judge, and then at the floor. "No. I didn't actually see that."

"But you signed the statement."

"Colleen brought it to my house with a pen. She said you'd all been through so much."

Ben stood up before anyone else could speak.

He played the porch camera on a screen the clerk had wheeled in.

It showed Colleen setting her casserole on the rail and laying the key on top.

It showed me standing with my hands at my sides.

It showed no raised hand, and no contact, from the first second to the last.

The judge watched it twice.

Then she turned and looked over her glasses at Colleen for a long time.

"Ms. Fraser," she said. "You have filed a sworn statement that was not true, and you obtained a second signature on it from a woman who did not read it. I'm denying the motion. If you file another one without a real basis, I will refer it to the prosecutor."

"Your Honor, I only..."

"Sit down."

Colleen sat.

I did not look at her as I left.

Ben and I walked out into the corridor, and at the end of it he held open the door to the stairwell.

"This way. The elevators are full."

The stairwell was concrete and gray and smelled of floor cleaner.

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