He shook his head slowly. “Money doesn’t replace a person. Anyone who thinks it does has never actually lost one.”

“Move to strike as non-responsive,” the attorney said quickly.

“Overruled,” said the judge. “The witness may finish.”

“He didn’t ask me to lie,” Brandon said, into the quiet. “He didn’t ask me to accuse anyone of anything that wasn’t true. He asked me not to let his own murder become a reward for the people who murdered him.

That’s all. And I’ll tell you the truth — I’d go back to scrubbing hospital floors tomorrow, for the rest of my life, if it meant that man didn’t have to spend his last hours lying in a bed listening to his wife lean over him and mock him while he died.”

For a moment the courtroom was silent. Then Demi came out of her chair.