Sean was up before the last word had even left her mouth. “Objection, Your Honor.”
Dylan faced me with horrified eyes. “I didn’t hear anything,” he whispered. “I didn’t. Please. I didn’t hear anything.” His voice was shaking now. “Everybody fought with Zach. He was a prick. He shoved a kid in a restaurant once because the boy was laughing too loudly. Did everybody just forget that?”
“Silence,” the judge demanded.
“Your Honor,” Sean said, stepping forward, “this is a bail hearing, not a trial. The State is trying to introduce testimony from a minor without notice. Calling witnesses here today serves no purpose other than prejudice and intimidation.”
Belmont headed for the judge's bench.
“Your Honor, the State must insist. The safety of the Alderwyn children is at risk if a murderer is released back into their home.”
“She’s lying!” Dylan shot to his feet. “My mom would never hurt us!"
“Don’t.” I pulled Dylan back down.
Brian just looked stupid, like a man waiting for somebody to tell him he could leave.
“My client’s son will not be testifying today,” Sean insisted. “He is a minor. He has a choice.”
One of Belmont’s bulldogs rose immediately. Tall, slick hair. The kind of man who looked like he enjoyed being cruel in shiny shoes.
“No, he doesn’t have a choice,” he said. “That decision belongs to the judge.”
“I’m not doing it,” Dylan snapped.
The whole courtroom broke into restless chatter. Sean and Belmont’s people were arguing back and forth in clipped legal language, talking over each other.
Then Zach’s mother stood up.
She was crying, pointing across the aisle at Lacey with a trembling hand. “That monster killed my son! You people are insane if you let her go!”
The judge slammed his gavel.
“Order!”
For half a moment, things settled. But then Zach’s sister shouted from her seat: “Thank God for cancer. I hope that bitch dies soon!”
Dylan was up again before I could stop him. “Thank God for hell too,” he shouted at her, fists clenched at his sides. “Because that’s where your narcissistic piece-of-shit brother is now!”
People gasped. Voices exploded all around us. Court officers rushed in trying to calm the chaos.
One of them stepped between our side and the Nabb family—a huge guy with dark hair. Hands up. “Enough,” he barked. “Sit down. All of you. Now.”
“Stop it!” I grabbed Dylan by his wrist, pulling him back as hard as I could, but the room was already spiraling.
Officers tried desperately to keep Zach’s dad and Dylan apart as they were close to a fistfight. Brian just sat there staring, then he rose and left. People were yelling this and that. Lacey, on the other hand, sat frozen at the defense table. Her face blank, eyes fixed on nothing.
“Order,” Judge McKenna shouted, hammering his gavel over and over again.
This time it worked. The courtroom calmed down.
But all of this was bad. Bail had become impossible at this point. And Kara Belmont’s mocking grin confirmed it.
Judge McKenna looked down at the papers in front of him. He read. Paused. Read again. Then he shook his head.
My heart burst. Shattered into a million pieces as I watched the denial form on his tongue.
I grabbed Dylan’s hand, holding it tightly. Both of us were shaking. Grief pressed in from every direction. Sadness. Anger. Hopelessness. Rage.
