“Vanessa, don’t make a scene.”
Every adult froze.
But Caleb did not.
He stepped out from behind me, his little dinosaur dangling from one hand.
“Mommy doesn’t like when men grab ladies.”
Daniel released Vanessa instantly.
His face flushed. “I wasn’t—”
“Yes, you were,” Vanessa said.
Her voice trembled, but she did not step back this time.
She pulled her wrist to her chest and looked around the room, seeing not strangers but witnesses.
Then she turned to me.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
It surprised me.
Not because I needed it.
Because she meant it.
I nodded once.
Daniel let out a harsh breath. “This is unbelievable. All of you are turning on me because my ex-wife walks in here with some paperwork and a dramatic performance?”
His mother stood.
The room seemed to shift around her.
Marianne Reynolds had spent most of the evening looking broken. Now something old and formidable returned to her spine.
