Chapter 5: Opposing Counsel

For a second Jade forgot her crutches.

Her weight came down on both feet.

Then she remembered, and sagged onto them again with a little gasp.

"Audrey?" Her voice went high and sweet. "Oh my God. What are you doing here?"

"Sitting."

"Are you okay? Chris said you might do something like this."

"Like what?"

She looked around the gallery, at the trophies, at Finn.

"Get a job at a gym." She smiled at the boy with the camera. "She's my friend's ex. It's so sad, honestly."

Finn stood up.

He was a lot taller than he looked on court.

"This is a private club, and you're filming without permission. I'm going to ask you to leave."

"I'm a member."

"You're a plaintiff. Your membership was suspended in May. You got the letter."

The front-desk manager appeared behind the ring light with her arms folded.

"Out," she said.

Jade turned on her crutches with a lot of noise and swung herself back down the hall.

The boy with the camera followed, still filming the floor.

Robbie watched them go.

"She was faster than that on court two," he said.

On Tuesday morning the hearing was in a courtroom on Centre Street, on the motion to dismiss.

I sat at the defense table beside my father and laid out my pens in a row.

My mother sat in the first row of the gallery with her reading glasses on her head.

Finn sat beside her in a suit that was a little tight in the shoulders.

At ten to ten, the back doors opened.

Chris came in first, carrying two briefcases.

Jade came after him in the boot, on one crutch today, with a junior associate holding the door.

Chris was halfway down the aisle before he saw me.

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