Michael had convinced Rachel that I was a selfish old woman hoarding money that should rightfully be theirs, and Rachel had convinced herself that forcing an elderly widow out of her own house was somehow practical, reasonable, kind.

Each lie had made the next one easier to tell, and to believe, until the two of them had talked themselves all the way into a courtroom, certain they were the reasonable ones.

That is how it happens.

Not all at once.

One small lie at a time.

Chapter 22 — Three Minutes

When the court finally resumed and all the evidence had been entered, Judge Bennett needed less than three minutes to rule.

After everything, after the weeks of preparation and the years of what had led to it, the decision itself was almost swift.