Lumi’s POV
The courthouse feels cold, it doesn’t feel like a place where truth lives, more like a place where things are arranged. Where words are sharpened, twisted, polished until they sound like something else entirely. And right now, I’m the something else.
I pause just outside the courtroom doors, my fingers tightening slightly around the strap of my bag. Breathe in, hold, breathe out.
“You good?”
Clover’s voice is softer than usual beside me.
I nod. “I’m fine.”
It’s a lie, I’m not fine, I didn’t even have time to collect myself before coming here. But I don’t need to feel fine, I just need to look like it.
“Remember,” Clover adds quietly, leaning closer, “don’t react to anything stupid they say.”
I glance at her. “That depends on how stupid it is.”
She gives me a look. “Lumi
