I stepped around the desk, stopping just feet away from my former best friend.

“She lied to you, Olivia,” I said.

“Just like she lied to me, and just like she lied to the doctors.”

Olivia looked at me, her eyes filled with a mixture of guilt and terror.

“Claire, I swear,” Olivia whispered.

“I didn’t know she stole them from you.”

“I thought you didn’t want them anymore.”

“You wanted to believe her,” I said.

“Because it was easier than admitting what you were stealing from me.”

In the corner, Samuel Greene adjusted his glasses and looked up from his notepad.

He had been watching the exchange with a calm, analytical intensity.

“This is very illuminating,” Samuel said, his deep voice cutting through the tension.

He stood up, buttoning his charcoal suit jacket.

“But we are wasting valuable time arguing in an office.”

Samuel turned to me, his expression serious.

“The court opens in forty-five minutes, Claire,” he said.

“We need to move before they have a chance to relocate the child.”

Margaret’s head snapped toward Samuel.

“You will do no such thing,” Margaret said.