“You two okay?”
Samuel looked down. “Did Dad lie?”
I took a breath. I had promised myself I would never make the boys carry adult bitterness. Even now, especially now, I had to be careful.
“There are things he didn’t explain honestly,” I said. “But grown-up problems are not your job to fix.”
Owen’s hand found mine. “Are we still going to live with you?”
“I’m going to do everything I can to keep your lives steady,” I told him.
Samuel frowned. “But Dad said Paige already picked our rooms.”
I closed my eyes for one brief second.
When I opened them, Judge Calder’s clerk was calling us back in.
The second half of the hearing felt different from the first. Adrian no longer reclined in his chair. Russell’s voice lost its theatrical certainty. Paige sat with her hands folded tightly in her lap, no longer whispering.
