They were not evidence of what Lars had taken from me.

They were proof that I had survived long enough to speak.

Lars went pale.

Sigrid’s mouth fell open.

Judge Redfield lowered her glasses, looked directly at the two of them for a long moment, and admitted the medical images into evidence.

The decision to open my jacket was mine, and I want to be clear that it was not a moment of exposure but of the opposite — of ownership.