The air in the courtroom felt heavy, thick with tension you could almost cut with a knife. Beside Tessa, Nathan sat as still as a statue. His hand wrapped around hers, gripping so tightly it should have hurt, if not for the tight knot of anxiety that had been lodged in her stomach all morning. Jack and Tyler sat right behind them, there as friends.

On the defendant’s bench sat Charles Remington. He looked thinner, paler, but his eyes still held that cruel, arrogant glint she had always ...