Chapter 2: Before Friday
The recess did not quiet the courthouse. It only moved the noise behind closed doors.
Mara guided me into a small consultation room off the hall, where a box of tissues sat beside a pitcher of water no one had touched. Elise was already there with Leo. He sat in a chair too large for him, rabbit in his lap, its bent ear tucked beneath his thumb.
His eyes found mine. I didn’t ask what he’d said. I didn’t ask him to say it again.
Mara kept her voice low. “Elise, can you tell us only what Leo volunteered? Nothing you had to draw out of him.”
Elise nodded. “He made the drawing while he was waiting. When I asked what the figures were doing, he said they were practicing your name. Then he added something on his own.”
Leo leaned into the rabbit. The room smelled of paper, old coffee, and the lemon cleaner they used on the courthouse floors. I felt the baby press hard beneath my ribs, and held still until the ache passed.
“Dad said the bank could give Grandpa’s money to the Riverline project,” Leo said. His gaze stayed on the rabbit. “He said they needed Mom’s name before Friday.”
Elise didn’t ask him what else he remembered. She shifted her chair closer, not touching him.
“Thank you for telling us, Leo,” she said. “That’s enough for now.”
He looked at me then, his lower lip caught between his teeth. I wanted to pull him into my arms. I wanted to take every frightened word out of his small body and carry it myself. But Elise had brought him here to be heard, not examined, and he was still clutching the rabbit like it was the one thing in the room he could control.
“Can I go wait with you?” I asked.
Leo nodded.
Elise walked us back to the family-services room, where a television played softly with the captions on. Leo settled on the couch, rabbit tucked under his chin. I sat near him, close enough that he could lean against me if he chose, and let the silence belong to him.
When I returned to the consultation room, Mara had closed the door. She looked at me for a long moment before speaking.
“Riverline is the development Julian’s been trying to keep afloat, correct?”
“I know he’s been involved with it. I don’t know what shape it’s in now.” I pressed my palm to the small of my back. “And I don’t know what my father’s account can or can’t do.”
“Neither do I,” Mara said. “Not yet. We don’t know how the account is titled, what safeguards apply, or whether anyone has submitted anything beyond the records request. Leo’s words give us a reason to move quickly, not a reason to assume we know the answer.”
A beat later, the door opened without a knock.
Julian stood there, one hand on the knob. His tie had loosened, but his expression had tightened into something almost gentle.
“Mara,” he said, “could I speak to Audrey alone?”
“No,” Mara said.
His eyes shifted to me. “Then we’ll keep this simple. You said you wanted out. Let’s make it simple before this turns into something it isn’t.”
The offer landed strangely. Minutes ago, he’d called Leo too young to understand. Now he wanted to settle everything while the drawing sat between us, the paper covered in my name.
“What does simple mean?” I asked.
“You keep the house and the cars out of it. I keep them. We divide nothing else. You get a clean start, and nobody has to spend the next year fighting.”
He said it as if the clean start were his gift to me.
“I already said I’d give those things up.”
“Exactly.” His voice softened. “So let’s finish it.”
Mara stepped between his words and me. “Nothing is being finalized during a recess.”
Julian looked past her. “Audrey, think about Leo. He’s already upset. If you keep pushing this drawing around, they’ll make him answer questions. He doesn’t need that.”
My throat tightened. He had found the tenderest place in me and pressed his thumb there.
“He told us what he remembered,” I said. “I won’t ask him to repeat it.”
“Then let it go.”
“You want me to pretend I didn’t hear him?”
“I want you to protect him.”
The sentence might have worked if I hadn’t seen him watching the courtroom door. If Melissa hadn’t been texting. If my name weren’t scattered across Leo’s drawing like something someone had tried to copy until it looked right.
For a moment, I saw the life I’d wanted: Julian and me signing papers, leaving the courthouse, going our separate ways with as little damage as possible. It had seemed like generosity when I offered it. Now I could see what he wanted from it—a quick exit before anyone looked too closely.
“I’m not going to make Leo carry this,” I said. “But I’m not going to help you bury it.”
His mouth flattened. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Then explain why my account came up.”
He didn’t answer. His gaze flicked toward Mara, then back to me.
Mara’s phone vibrated on the table. She glanced at the screen, and her face changed.
“Nora,” she said, already reading the message.
Julian took one step toward her. “What is it?”
Mara lifted her eyes to mine. “The records request wasn’t the only contact.”
May you like
Her phone buzzed again. This time she read the message aloud.
“Nora says the request was followed by an inquiry from a lender about your account.”
