Zoe
The courtroom felt smaller than I expected, wood paneled and formal in a way that seemed almost absurdly ordinary given the weight of everything that had led to this exact moment. I sat in the gallery beside Ryder, Jax, and Mason on the morning my testimony was scheduled, my hands folded tight in my lap, trying to project a calm I didn't fully feel.
Cole sat at the defense table across the room, older and grayer than I remembered from that night at the storage facility, his expression carefully neutral as proceedings began. I made myself look at him directly rather than away, refusing to give him the satisfaction of seeing me flinch.
Alvarez had warned me the wait would be difficult, other testimony and evidence presentation stretching across the morning before my own turn finally a
