The Burning Road to Divorce After the Fire novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: Under Seal

The courtroom at nine o'clock was full, and I had not expected that.

Reporters took the front bench.

Behind them sat half of Marrow Creek, in church clothes, because Brent's face had been on the news every night for a week.

Kurt sat in the second row in a borrowed jacket.

Behind him sat nine hotshots in clean fire shirts with their arms folded, and the assistant superintendent nodded at me once.

Melanie sat at the end, with Biscuit's leash wound around her wrist, though dogs were not allowed.

Nobody had told her to leave.

Brent came in last, with his mother on one arm and his silver-haired lawyer on the other.

He wore the navy suit and the sunflower pin, and he smiled at the room.

"All rise."

The judge was a thin woman with reading glasses on a chain, and she looked at both tables for a long moment before she sat.

"This is an emergency petition by Breckenridge Air Rescue to retain an aircraft," she said. "Mr. Breckenridge's counsel, you may begin."

The silver-haired man stood.

"Your Honor, this is a county lifeline. Ms. Stauffer is a veterinary technician with no pilot's license who lost a relative and is acting out of grief. If she grounds this helicopter, people will die."

"Poor Lainey," Brent said from his chair, soft and sorrowful.

"I'm not grounding anything," I said. "I'm taking back what's mine."

"Ms. Stauffer, you will wait to be recognized," the judge said.

"Yes, ma'am."

My attorney stood.

She had a cough drop in her cheek and a folder under her arm, and she looked about nineteen.

"Your Honor, the aircraft is registered to the Stauffer Rescue Trust. Ms. Stauffer inherited it two weeks ago. Breckenridge Air has leased it for one dollar a year, under a lease whose ninth paragraph lets the owner terminate immediately if it is used for advertising, entertainment or personal gain."

"And has it been?"

"We have evidence that it has. We will show it Saturday, in a larger room."

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