(Lena)
Two weeks later the study was finished.
Cole had walked through it the evening the desk lamp arrived and stood in the sitting room for a long moment without saying anything. He looked at the green wall and then at the room and then at me and said it was exactly right. That was all. No excess. Just exactly right in the way he said everything that mattered.
I had driven home that night feeling like something had closed properly.
Two weeks after that I was standing in front of my bathroom mirror at six forty five in the morning getting ready for the hearing.
Diane knocked once and opened the door.
She looked at me.
"You look good," she said.
"I feel sick," I said.
"That's normal," she replied. "You'll feel better once it starts."
I picked up my bag and we went downstairs.
Br
