Every morning the sunlight caught the glass, and every evening I could see it from the hallway when her door stood halfway open.

PART 14

The first major court proceeding I attended as a witness was quieter than the scene I’d once imagined.

No one shouted over dramatic music.

People stood when asked, documents were identified, and questions were repeated when someone hadn’t heard.

My hands still trembled as I described the transfers, the funeral, and the photograph at the cottage.

The attorneys asked whether I had ever explicitly required Mark to place the forty thousand dollars each year in a separate account for Emma.

I had not.