True bill.
There it was.
Her heartbeat thudded once, hard, against her ribs. Then the familiar stillness slipped into place, the same cool quiet that had carried her through verdict readings and split-second objections.
Somewhere under the shock, a second realization hit: this wasn’t the State of North Carolina on the other side of the caption anymore.
It was Reid.
Reid—who had kissed her…
Who knew exactly what this would do to her, and where it would hit.
And he’d done it anyway.
Whatever they’d pulled out of Riverbend, alongside Katie Martin and those ugly texts, had been enough to convince twelve strangers there was something here worth dragging into open court.
What if I’m standing beside a man who buried her?
She shut the thought down before it could take root. She closed the laptop gently.
The motion could wait.
She stood, smoothed a nonexistent wrinkle from her skirt, and opened her office door.
Frannie looked up from the reception desk.
“One of your bond hearings moved,” she began. “Judge Harlan?—”
“Frannie.”
Something in Eleanor’s tone made her stop.
“They indicted him,” Eleanor said quietly.
Frannie’s face tightened.
“Oh, honey.”
Lucy’s head popped up from behind her monitor.
“They what?”
“Grand jury returned a true bill on David,” Eleanor said. “Arraignment and calendar call Monday. Superior Court, Courtroom One.”
Lucy’s eyes went wide.
“But he didn’t?—”
“Lucy,” Frannie warned gently.
Lucy pressed her lips together, throat working.
Eleanor grabbed her keys from the dish on the corner of the desk.
“I’m going out for a bit,” she said. “If anyone calls about Mercer, tell them I’ll return messages this afternoon.”
Frannie nodded.
