Then, just as Hensley was beginning his closing remarks on “stability,” a small voice interrupted.
“Excuse me.”
At first I thought I had imagined it because my nerves had become a live wire. Then I saw every adult head turn in the same direction.
Lily was standing.
She stood beside the bench where she had been sitting quietly with her rabbit in her lap, her pale blue dress smooth under the courtroom lights, her curls slightly flattened from the car ride. Her hands were trembling, but her chin was up. I had never seen her look so small and so determined at the same time.
Judge Tanner’s expression changed immediately. Something in him softened.
“Yes, sweetheart?” he said.
Lily swallowed. “May I show you something that Mom doesn’t know about, Your Honor?”
My entire body went cold.
I turned to her so fast my chair scraped the floor. “Lily—”
Margaret touched my arm lightly, a warning.
What did she mean? What didn’t I know? My mind flashed wildly through impossible possibilities. Had Mark spoken to her? Had she seen something? Had she been coached? Had I missed some danger moving right under my nose because I was too busy surviving my own fear?
Judge Tanner leaned forward, his voice calm. “Do you have something you’d like to share with the court?”
“Yes, sir,” she said. “It’s important.”
“Does it relate to who you feel safe living with?”
She nodded. “Yes, sir.”
Hensley stood immediately. “Your Honor, I would object to any unsworn—”
Judge Tanner lifted a hand without even looking at him. “Counselor, sit down.”
Hensley sat.
The judge looked back at Lily. “All right. What would you like to show us?”
Lily bent down, unzipped her backpack, and pulled out the purple tablet.
I felt dizzy.
It was the same cheap tablet I had bought her for cartoons and drawing games. The rubber case was chewed a little at one corner where she used to gnaw when she concentrated. She held it with both hands as if it were fragile and heavy.
She walked it to the clerk, who took it carefully. The clerk looked to the judge; the judge nodded. A cable appeared. Buttons were pressed. The monitor at the front of the courtroom flickered blue, then black, then came alive.
I remember every second of what followed with the unnatural clarity of shock.