The appeal was set for five days out.
I already had the divorce papers drawn up and the plane tickets booked.
Once everything was settled, I would take Emily and leave this place of grief for good.
After I'd coaxed her to sleep, I called every lawyer in Marisville, one after another.
But the moment they heard Annette Carlisle's name, every last one of them waved me off.
I was at the end of my rope when her voice came from behind me.
"Bruno, save your breath."
"You can't win this case."
I turned toward her, on my guard.
"What are you doing here."
"I came to see Emily."
Her voice was calm, the way it always was.
"She's still my daughter. What she's become is partly on me."
I thought of the hope on my daughter's face.
I hesitated, then stepped aside and let Annette in.
Sure enough, Emily lit up the moment she saw her mother.
Without thinking, she hid her injured hand behind her back.
And forced out the brightest smile she could manage.
"Mom, you came to see me."
Annette didn't answer.
She opened the briefcase in her hand.
Emily's sharp eyes caught the necklace inside, and she reached for it, delighted.
"Mom, you actually bought the watch!"
Annette had once promised that if Emily got into the nation's top university, she'd give her a limited-edition designer watch.
But before Emily's fingers could touch it, Annette frowned and pushed her hand away.
"This isn't for you."
She took a camera out of the briefcase.
And set it down in front of Emily, all business.
"Emily Carlisle, I need you to answer the following questions seriously."
"Everything you say will be admissible as testimony."
The smile faded a little on my daughter's face, but she still nodded, obedient as ever.
"Why did you fake a fall to frame Thomas Pruitt?"
"Was it because Bruno was jealous of Uncle Calvin, and put you up to all of it?"
The smile froze completely on my daughter's face.
In its place, her eyes went red.
She shook her head, at a loss for what to do.
"I didn't…"
"Mom, believe me, I really didn't!"
Annette's expression stayed severe.
"Emily Carlisle, you're an adult now."
"I won't keep covering for what you've done. If you don't tell the truth, I will make you pay for it myself!"
"Enough!"
Seeing my daughter about to break down, I rushed forward and put myself between them.
"Annette, Emily is your daughter."
"Fine, you don't believe her. But you're actually siding with an outsider to accuse your own child. What kind of mother does that!"
Annette switched off the camera.
Her face stayed severe, without a flicker of feeling.
"I'm only doing my job."
"As a professional lawyer, I won't let any perpetrator go, and I certainly won't cover for any criminal."
At the word criminal, my daughter went white.
All her life she had looked up to Annette as her idol.
Her greatest dream was to get into her mother's alma mater and become a brilliant lawyer.
Annette knew that dream. She knew that anyone who wanted to be a lawyer couldn't afford a single stain on her record.
And still, so casually, she called her own daughter a "criminal."
My heart felt like it would split open from the pain.
I held my daughter and pointed toward the door.
Coldly, I told Annette to get out.
She didn't react at all.
She stood, slammed the door, and was gone.
Without another word.
