“You don’t have the votes,” Ethan said.

“I do if I align with Carl Brenner,” Vance said.

The name felt like a splash of ice water on my face.

I took a step toward them, but Dr. Rao held my sleeve.

“Brenner?” Ethan asked, his voice dropping. “He is a common criminal, Richard. He extorts poor families.”

“He is also the legal owner of the building where the child was living,” Vance said. “And he has a paper trail of unpaid rent and complaints about child neglect.”

“Those are lies,” I called out, unable to stay quiet any longer.

Vance turned his head, looking at me as if I were a speck of dust on the floor.

“The court doesn’t care about the truth, lady,” Vance said. “They care about the documents.”

He turned back to Ethan.

“Brenner is willing to testify that the child was left abandoned for days at a time,” Vance said. “He is willing to claim that you tried to bribe him to cover it up.”

“He’s the one who locked us out,” I said, my voice shaking with rage. “He took Mary’s things.”