Sunshine streamed through the windows, belying the crispness of the October morning. Carolyn stood in her office at the Cole County Courthouse, gazing out at the frost-glazed trees that lined the sheets of downtown Jefferson City. A burst of cold air had pushed south from Canada early in the year.

She couldn’t believe how the last eleven months had sped by. The election was less than four weeks away. With a flick of her fingertips, she twirled her black leather desk chair, then she sat down and rested her elbows on the immense cherry wood desk. She massaged her forehead. A dull ache collected behind her brow.

“Good morning,” Edmund Lane said as he entered her office and closed the door behind him.

Carolyn jumped at the sound of his voice. “You surprised me.”

He cocked an eyebrow and studied her. “There’s no time for daydreaming, girl. Warner’s falling in the polls, and I want to know what you’re going to do about it.”

“Your son-” she began.

“I don’t want to hear about my son.” He walked around her desk, taking her chin in his hand. “I want to talk about Warner and you. What are you going to do?”

She peered up at him warily, struggling to conceal her loathing of the man. “What would you like me to do?”

“I think you know. Or have you forgotten everything I’ve taught you? Drastic times call for drastic measures.” He dropped his hand from her chin, but his cold blue eyes bore into her. “I expect Warner to win. It’s your job to make sure of that. From what I’ve seen lately, you aren’t holding up your end of our agreement.”

Carolyn had known Edmund longer than she’d known Warner – in ways she’d rather not recall. After twelve years of marriage to his son, she knew there were few boundaries to Edmund’s ruthlessness. But arguing with him was pointless. He was too powerful and had been in Missouri politics too long. He could ostracize her from the state and political life forever.

She reminded herself that she might have lost her husband’s love, but she couldn’t afford to lose anything else. Especially not as a result of Edmund’s cruel machinations. She took a deep breath and waited for him to continue.

“Meet me tomorrow for lunch at the Hilton. Noon. Don’t be late.” Edmund’s voice lowered to a hiss. “Let me down on this, and I may forget our deal.”

“You wouldn’t hurt your son like that,” she said. The pain in her head intensified.

“Try me.” He turned his back on her and left the office.

She knew better than to ignore Edmund. How much worse could this situation get?

She’d always believed that the two Lane men were different. Cold and calculating, Edmund’s self-interest and lust for power guided him. Warner, however, had been loving and kind. At least, until he’d learned of her abortion. Maybe that’s what she wanted to believe, she thought.

Now he wielded hate like the practiced sword of a samurai. And Warner’s affair certainly wasn’t showing any signs of abating.

She found herself caught between two men who both tolerated her with unconcealed disdain. She felt like Humpty Dumpty, the shell of her personal life shattered at her feet. All of it within her reach, yet she seemed unable to puzzle the pieces back together again.

The familiar pang of loneliness and isolation overwhelmed her. She wiped at her tears as they overflowed, and with a practiced shove, buried the hurt. Self-pity was not her style. Somehow she’d figure this out. Somehow she’d fix it.

Well, Edmund was right on one account, Carolyn conceded. Warner was falling in the polls. His opponent, Jackson Green, was hammering him on the new airport project, cuts in education, and raising taxes. She needed to do something to retrieve Warner’s career. Regardless of the state of their personal life, she believed Warner to be capable of a great political future. A future she desperately wanted to be a part of. In reality, she knew that politics was all she really had left. That harsh fact chilled her heart.

She enjoyed being a prosecutor, but it was the natural precursor to a life in politics – to effecting change at a higher level and in a more sweeping and long-lasting manner. Her entire life was dedicated to getting beyond prosecuting one case at a time and arriving at a place where she’d be making the laws, instituting real change, real justice. This was the one dream she and Warner shared.

A knock on her door disturbed her thoughts. “Enter at your own risk.” Carolyn called out. She forced a smile when newly hired assistant district attorney, Randy McCabe, walked in.

Fresh out of law school, McCabe’s enthusiasm glowed through the freckles that covered his face.

“Mark has a domestic case for you.” He brushed his reddish bangs back from his forehead.

She didn’t invite him to sit down. “Tell me about it.”

“We’ve got a minor who watched his parents sell and abuse drugs for years and then turned them in. Mark thought you might want to take it on.”

“The child called the police himself?”

“Better than that.” Randy said. “He helped the police set up a sting. It was a pretty big bust. Mark thinks there must have been some physical abuse going on.”

“There usually is.” Carolyn remarked softly. Her stomach tightened in anticipation of the roller coaster ride through hell these cases induced in her. Not only did they trigger her back to her own childhood, but they kicked into overdrive her nurturing and protective instincts. If she’d been able to, she would have adopted each child from every case she’d ever prosecuted.

Randy shifted his weight from one foot to the other, but remained standing in front of Carolyn’s desk.

“How old is he?”

“Fifteen.”

Carolyn nodded. “Where’s Mark now?”

“In his office.”

“Tell him I’ll be down this afternoon to discuss the case. Say three-thirty. If there’s a problem with the time, call me.”

“If you take this case, can I help? I’d really appreciate an opportunity to work with you.”

She turned her attention back to the papers on her desk. “Have you handled any case work like this before?”

“No.”

“Have you litigated anything before?”

“No.”

Carolyn looked up. “I appreciate your enthusiasm, but this is a kid’s life we’re talking about. Everything this child has in the world just got tossed into the air like a handful of dust. So don’t take this personally when I say that no one should learn on a case like this, no one. Get some experience and then we’ll talk.”

“Mark told me you’d say that.”

Carolyn raised an eyebrow. “Yes?”

“Yeah. But I had to try anyway.” He smiled.

“Well, you get an A for effort.”

McCabe walked to the door, then paused briefly. “May I ask you a personal question?”

“Sure.”

“Does being a senator’s wife ever factor into your decision to take these types of cases?”

“Ouch. You’re a bit young for such cynicism.”

He shrugged. “It’s the world we live in.”

She eyed him thoughtfully. “I suppose that’s true. Well, believe it or not, this is a battle I began to wage long before I met my husband.” This admission made her feel ancient.

“Really?”

“Really.” Carolyn said and waved him out the door. She softened her dismissal with a faint smile.

Carolyn made her way down the corridor to Mark Dailey’s office. Mark was a unique man – intriguing, really, she thought. He was a senior assistant district attorney, like her, and he projected a strong moral image. He’d been with the county prosecutor’s office for eleven years and was an excellent litigator.

Mark had tight relationships with all of the “big boys.” having grown up in Missouri as the beneficiary of old family money. Edmund had taught her to evaluate all relationships based on how he or she could help or hinder. In Mark’s case she figured it was help. Carolyn cringed at the self-serving nature of her thoughts. Edmund had taught her so many things, long before she ever met Warner. His brutal influence still remained. His agenda disgusted her, but his street smarts had carried her far. She silently cursed the man, then relegated him to the mental closet where she kept the rest of her demons.