Arthur looked at his lawyer.
For the first time that morning, he seemed uncertain.
“I did not personally sign her name,” he said.
The judge nodded.
“That is also not what I asked.”
A murmur passed through the courtroom.
My heart was beating so hard that I could feel it in my throat, but I kept my hands still on the table.
Arthur’s attorney requested a brief recess.
The judge granted it.
As the lawyers gathered their papers, Vivian turned toward me.
“You planned this,” she hissed.
I looked at her.
“No. I asked a question. Your family spent months trying to make sure nobody else could ask it.”
She recoiled as though I had slapped her.
For once, she had no answer.
The Evidence That Changed Everything
During the recess, my attorney explained that the court was not going to determine the entire dispute that day. The judge had questions about the disputed guarantee, the reliability of certain allegations, and the extent to which the parties’ preliminary requests could be resolved on the existing record.
