The Encore of Us novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: Emergency Hearing

The courtroom smelled of floor wax and wet wool.

It was a small room on the fourth floor of the county courthouse, with six rows of wooden benches and a flag in the corner.

Every bench was full.

I had not expected that.

Rhea sat behind me with Tove's school picture in her purse.

Beside her sat the mother from the dialysis ward, who had taken the morning off to come.

Two of the night nurses sat with her in their street clothes.

Behind them sat half the Brandvold board, in wool and cashmere, with their hands folded.

My lawyer was a legal-aid attorney with a ponytail and a coffee stain on her cuff.

She had read my file for the first time in the elevator.

"Don't say more than you have to," she whispered. "Don't look at the other table."

I looked at the other table.

Ingrid sat very straight beside her attorney, in a navy suit and the pearls, and she did not look at me.

She had said the words in the hospital hallway yesterday.

She had not said them to a police officer yet.

I knew she was waiting to see what I would do.

"This is an emergency petition for temporary guardianship of a minor child," the judge said.

She was a gray-haired woman with half-glasses and the tired patience of someone who had heard every kind of family.

"Mrs. Brandvold's counsel, you may begin."

Ingrid's attorney stood.

He was smooth about it.

He said the words "convicted" and "manslaughter" and "supervised release" in the same sentence.

He said the child had been placed with a billing clerk on a modest salary.

He said a grandmother with means and a stable home was ready to give her every advantage.

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