“If the judge asks whether you want charges pressed, what do I tell him?”

“Tell him I do.”

He shut the case.

“Go on back and sit with Chloe.

I’ll meet you in the hallway at nine.”

He lifted the case and then put it down once more.

“Your son’s lawyer also asked about the two-hundred-fifty-thousand-dollar rider.

He wanted to know whether you’d signed it.”