Chapter 23: The Final Hearing

On the morning of October 22, I was thirty-seven weeks pregnant and my ankles had disappeared.

The courtroom was small and brown, with a flag in the corner and a clock that ran four minutes slow.

Carrie and Levi sat in the second row behind me.

Behind them, in the third, sat Derek's mother in her quilted jacket with her purse on her knees.

She had walked in alone and chosen my side without looking at her son.

Derek's side of the gallery was full.

Mitch sat in the front row in a collared shirt, with his hands between his knees.

Beside him sat the friend who surfed, and two wives, and the girl with the baby, who had left the baby home.

A dozen people were there to tell a judge what kind of woman I was.

Derek sat at the table in a navy suit, thinner than in March, with his new lawyer beside him.

The judge was a woman with short gray hair and a face that had stopped being surprised years ago.

"I have a mediation agreement signed by both parties," she said, flipping a page.

"Mr. Maddox's new counsel has moved to set it aside. Counsel, you have a witness list."

"We do, Your Honor." Derek's lawyer stood.

"We'd like to show that Ms. Westerby has been vindictive and erratic, and that the agreement was signed under pressure."

"Call your first."

"Mitch Hargraves."

Mitch stood up slowly.

He walked to the front of the room and put his hand on the book and said his name.

"Mr. Hargraves, you've known Mr. Maddox for fifteen years."

"Yes."

"Were you at your home on the second Saturday in March, when Ms. Westerby came to your barbecue?"