The judge read that sentence, and then he read it again, slowly, out loud, and looked over his glasses at my ex-husband, and the temperature in that courtroom changed for good.

Julian’s arrogance did not deflate so much as evaporate, all at once, leaving nothing behind it.

Evelyn immediately tried to blame the accountant — but the accountant had already spent two days cooperating with state prosecutors.

Julian tried to pivot to blaming his contact at the clinic, the administrator he had bribed — but she had taken a plea agreement of her own the week before, and had handed over the original, un-redacted lab files, the real ones, with my real name and my real, healthy results.

Every rope they reached for had already been cut, from the other end, by someone getting out from under them first.

Chapter 14 — By Noon