We are going to win it by being, consistently, the person in this case who is telling the truth.”

Chapter 15 — The Recording in the Courtroom

The temporary hearing came the following week.

Brandon arrived in a flawless navy suit, with Cynthia seated three rows back in the gallery, which I thought, even then, was a remarkable failure of judgment on someone’s part.

His attorney painted him as a devoted and bewildered father, a successful business owner and sole provider whose pregnant wife had, without warning or cause, snatched the children and fled their happy home in the night.

And then it was our turn, and Victoria told the court, plainly and without heat, what had actually happened at that dinner — that Brandon had arrived holding his mistress’s hand, announced in front of his six- and four-year-old children that she was moving into the family home, and stood waiting for a reaction.