I’d never been to the courthouse before. Even when Marcus told me that he was going to meet someone there during our date night, I remained in the car and didn’t ever bother to step out.
The courthouse was a great stone structure, with tall columns that looked like they belonged in a coliseum than anything else. There were a few Latin sentences written overhead, but I barely paid attention to them as I walked into the building.
“Remember, we’re only here for preliminary hearings,” Clara said as we walked in together. “You don’t pay attention to anyone or anything. You do exactly what I tell you, and we’ll be out of here in no time.”
I smiled weakly at her, even though my heart was hammering in my chest. I thought I would be ready for this, but the fear that was snaking through my veins was starting to make me nervous. I knew I would see Marcus today, and that thought alone was enough to make me want to turn around and flee from the building. I hadn’t seen him since that day when he slapped me and threw me out of the house. I didn’t know what to expect today, but I was sure that it was going to be awful.
“Good morning, Walters,” someone called as we walked down the lengthy hallway. It was a pudgy old man with barely enough strands of hair on his head, and a gap–toothed smile which made him look a hundred years old. I thought all lawyers would be as beautiful as they always were in movies and TV shows, but most of them looked absolutely ordinary. I was expecting to see Brad Pitts, but only saw plain old toms from the grocery store.
“Big day huh?” he asked as Ciara stopped to shake his hand “Nervous?”
“It’s no big deal,” she replied, smiling tightly at him. “It’s just preliminary hearings.”
“Yeah, but Bernard is going to shock you today,” he said. “Last time I went up against him, he had me pissing my pants in less than ten minutes.”
“That’s you, Liam,” Ciara said with a chuckle. “I think I’m good today.”
He looked up at me and smiled, in that familiar way that people usually did whenever they saw me. It was the look of someone who knew everything about me, but they didn’t know how to react when they met me in person. I’d been getting a lot of looks just like this recently, and I was already used to it.
“Um, good morning, Mrs Reynard,” he said awkwardly.
“Hello,” I replied, flinching slightly when he referred to me by that name.
“Where’s Judge Sanders?” Ciara asked, stepping in to diffuse the tension. “I need to see him before we appear in court.“!
“Room 3,” he replied. “Mrs Reynard can rest in my office before you see him.”
“That won’t be necessary,” she said. “Olivia, come along. Thanks for the pep talk,
