It was early autumn in Eldoria one month later, and the air was steeped in damp chill.
Beneath the lead-grey sky, the solemn, imposing courthouse building looked especially stark.
Claire stood in the witness box, her back straight as a measuring rod. She took her oath, answered questions, her voice steady and clear, her reasoning tight.
Steven watched her, his eyes as still and empty as a dry well.
Claire's calm gaze swept over him, without the slightest tremor of emotion—there was no hatred, much less love left in it.
Her eyes had always glowed so bright. No matter how tired she was from work, the second she saw him, her eyes would brim over with love.
A sharp, tingling ache pierced his heart, and he understood at last that she had never belonged only to him.
She was a bird soaring
