THE PRICE OF LETTING GO
I could feel every eye in the gallery on my back, and I made myself breathe once, slowly, before I began.
“Your Honor,” I said, my voice shaking at first, then steadying as I kept going. “I am not afraid of Dominic Hartley. I was married to him for four years. I filed for divorce. I built a life without him afterward, a real one, with a job I earned and an apartment I chose and friends who watched me do it.”
I turned slightly, just enough to look at Reyes without fully facing him. He kept his eyes fixed on the table in front of him, jaw tight.