The child advocate leaned down. “Lily, sweetheart, are you okay?”
Lily’s lower lip trembled. Her eyes moved from Rebecca to me, then to the judge.
Rebecca’s face changed first. Not much. Just a flash. A warning hidden behind a mother’s smile.
“Baby,” she said softly, “remember what we talked about.”
Lily shrank into herself.
Judge Whitman noticed.
The judge removed her glasses. “Lily, you are not in trouble.”
Lily swallowed hard. Her tiny voice barely reached across the room.
“Can I show you what Mommy made me promise to never tell?”
The courtroom went so still I could hear the fluorescent lights humming.
Continue on the next page:
