“No questions,” he said quietly.

“The witness may step down,” the judge said.

Melanie stood up, stumbling slightly, and walked back to the defense table.

She tried to sit next to her mother, but Josephine slid her chair a few inches away.

The rejection was silent, but it was absolute.

The judge began writing on a yellow legal pad.

The scratch of her pen was the only sound in the room.

The silence stretched on for what felt like minutes.

Outside, a sudden gust of wind rattled the heavy glass windows of the courtroom.

A gray sheet of rain began to pelt against the glass.

The sky had turned the color of lead.

I looked down at the table, my heart hammering against my ribs.

Leo reached over and put his arm around my shoulders.

“It’s almost over, Grace,” he whispered in my ear.

I wanted to believe him.

The judge stopped writing and capped her pen with a loud click.

She looked up, her gaze moving slowly from Josephine, to Melanie, and finally to Leo and me.

She leaned forward toward her microphone.