The “not guilty” verdict brought an instant reprieve from the stress that had enveloped Emma during Cal’s trial, but equanimity didn’t prevail, as her loss of appetite continued over the following week, along with disturbed sleep. In the dead of night, she woke with a start to find her body rigid, arms stiff by her side, legs clamped together, toes touching the bedclothes. Searching her mind for an explanation, her thought patterns became as unpredictable as summer storms. Adrift, she tossed on a heaving sea that stretched to the horizon with no land in sight, a small vessel outwardly damaged beyond repair. Her once proud mast resembled a lightning-struck tree trunk, scorched and jagged, her tiller languished untended, disconnected from the rudder beneath the surface, while remnants of sai
