“Yes.”

They walked inside the courthouse and went through the metal detectors. Once they were alone again, they continued walking, and Caleb continued talking, “We’re lucky to have this hearing so fast. Damn lucky that Judge Matthews is open to hearing the case after the other day. Let’s not blow it. No matter what they throw at us, we’ve got to keep our cool. Understand?”

“I do, but we can’t lose.”

Caleb was focused ahead. “I fight to win.”

Taylor liked the confidence in his voice and nodded because he related. He fought to win too.

They walked inside the courtroom and took their seats. Taylor hadn’t bothered to tell his parents for many reasons, but foremost, he couldn’t deal with their disappointment that this was even happening to a Barrett. He hadn’t even told them about being married, so bringing up a restraining order wasn’t something he really wanted to do. So he was going at it alone. There were a few unrecognizable faces behind him, a few on the other side, and Jude and her legal entourage had yet to arrive.

The large wooden doors that needed oiling opened and the squeak of the hinges made Taylor glance back. That’s when he saw them: the lawyers, the stepfather, the aunt, Isla, and Jude at the back. Today, she was a mixture of the woman he knew. She was part Judith, with her hair pinned back tightly, and part Jude in the dress she’d been wearing when he’d fallen in love with her. It was the one he had married her in, too. Chartreuse with little pink flowers embroidered around the bottom. A matching pink sweater covered her shoulders. Even with the overwhelming sadness on her face that left only traces of the laughter they had shared, she was stunning, and Taylor’s breath was taken away.

Isla saw Taylor and a small smile appeared, a silent apology of sorts it seemed, but he didn’t care about her. He only wanted Jude to look at him, but she kept her eyes down as low as her head hung. This was not good.

“Let me guess,” Caleb whispered. “The one in green and pink?”

“Yep.”

“Shit,” he muttered under his breath. “They’ve gotten to her.”

At first sight he thought the dress was a sign for him. But she wouldn’t look at him and that sign shouted louder than the sundress. The thought of how they had gotten to her made his blood boil. “I told you they would hurt her.”

“Calm down, Taylor. We have the facts on our side.”

“The facts don’t matter if she argues them, if she is being forced to side with them.”

Caleb turned to Taylor. “Tell me again. Is there any way she’ll turn against you?”

“She won’t speak a word against me. I know it,” he replied, not hesitating. “She would be tortured first, but probably has been. She won’t hurt me if she can help it.”

“The question remains, can she help it?”

Taylor stood as Jude passed by, but she still didn’t look at him. Her lawyer stepped between them and led her to the far side of the table. Taylor had never been a violent man. He was too sensible for that. But once he met Jude, once he felt real love, he suddenly understood the desire to lay down one’s life for someone else, to offer to take a hit to protect someone you love. He turned away from the lawyer’s back, wanting to pummel him for being a wall that kept him from her. He sat, trying to swim to reason and catch his breath again.

Thirty minutes into the proceeding, Taylor looked to the opposition and saw big blue-green eyes stealing a glance at him. She looked away, but it was as if her eyes were drawn to him because she soon looked back again.

Jude saw Hazel. Jude saw Hazel in his “marrying suit” as he had so playfully called it. Her heart was on the other side of the courtroom, tucked firmly in that front pocket of his, but when she looked at him, and their eyes met, she felt the faint ghost of a heartbeat in her chest again. The beat grew stronger the longer she sat there.

She snapped to when her lawyer pounded on the table in front of her, and said, “It’s not love you’re feeling. It’s obsession. The medication. It confuses the mind. You fell for his smooth pickup lines and the flash of wealth. Mr. Barrett made it so attractive to marry him when all along he had ill-intentions for your inheritance and your well-being.”

She wanted to run, to take flight from the hate that consumed the air around her. Her lawyer’s words were acid as they pierced her ears. She couldn’t look at Hazel having finally bartered her life for his. They said they would go easy on him. They said they would drop the charges if she just agreed to another year. One year of her life in exchange for his… which meant letting him go. She gulped and looked down, wanting to escape this room. This courtroom may be covered in shiny wooden walls and plush seats, but it was no better than the “holding cell” at Bleekman’s. Just less obvious of the torture it inflicted.

The photos were introduced to the judge again and she wished she didn’t have to hear the horrors they concocted. As the judge examined them, she stole a peek down the long line of people that kept her heart apart from her body. Hazel’s head was lowered and his eyes closed as he rubbed his temples. But he looked up as a woman sat down behind him. Her mother?

When the officers escorted her home, Jude’s stepfather and aunt were in the formal living room. Jude dropped to the hard, marble tiles of the foyer wishing she would shatter to the point of nonexistence. “You got what you wanted.”

Her aunt smiled and said, “Not quite yet, darling. But soon.”

What more can they take? Jude had nothing left, nothing that mattered to her.

She found out soon enough. The deal had been made. One year. One year and all that remained of the inheritance. One year in exchange for her life. Enough time to get the money transferred into offshore accounts with no suspicious activity attached. And for that, she was promised no more Bleekman’s in the meantime. They would give her everything she wanted back—her freedom, her happiness, her husband—if she just gave them one year and the money.

After Jude sold her soul to the devil himself, she went upstairs, then realized her mother had been missing from the witch-hunt. She had looked back once, for any sign of her, but she remained absent.

Isla stood up and joined Jude’s mother on Hazel’s side of the courtroom. She had no idea what she was up to or if she should even trust her, but when she saw the sympathy that laid heavy in Isla’s face, she wondered if maybe she suddenly had an ally. Nothing in her life made sense anymore and it was wearing her down. Seeing two of what she considered former foes supporting the good side made her smile. And Isla softly smiled in return.

Until her lawyer spoke of Parkinson’s and how it cuts a young life even shorter. Hazel was right. Everything about them had been sold in exchange for money. Could this really only be about money? She couldn’t take it anymore.

“Stop.”

At her demand, the entire courtroom looked her way.

The judge asked, “What was that?”

Jude’s eyes blinked rapidly as the imaginary interrogation lamp was spotlighting her. She slid down in her a chair and in the softest voice repeated herself, “Please stop attacking him.”

She didn’t dare venture a glimpse at Hazel. She would break and right now she was fighting to be strong.

The judge eyed her. “Ms. Boehler, please remain quiet during the proceedings. You’ve hired a lawyer to represent you. Let him do his job.”

“Don’t talk to her like that.”

The gavel came slamming down as everyone’s attention turned to Taylor, who had just spoken. The judge demanded, “Mr. Barrett. Sit down or I’ll have you removed.”

Caleb pulled Taylor by the arm until he was sitting next to him again. “Shut it,” he insisted under his breath.