Chapter 17 — What the Scars Proved

Lars’s lawyer was still calling it “an unfortunate domestic accident” when the prosecutor asked me to stand.

The courtroom went so quiet I could hear Sigrid’s bracelet tap once against the defense table.

I faced Judge Redfield, and I opened the left side of my jacket, and I eased the fabric back from my scarred shoulder — staying fully covered, revealing nothing private, showing only the healed path that ran from my cheek down my neck and arm and along my ribs.

I had spent months hiding those scars.

Now I understood what they were.