“You get five minutes,” the judge said.

“I’ll be taking four of them back.”

When we filed back in, Julian’s chair sat nearer his lawyer’s elbow than it had before.

At twelve fifteen Judge Raymond read from a legal pad, and he never once looked up.

He ended every parental right the pair of them held, both temporary and permanent.

He issued a warrant on two counts of child endangerment and one count of insurance fraud, and he scheduled a review ninety days out, on March eleventh.

Then he turned his head to the third row.