Michelle stays silent for a beat as if contemplating Kit’s request. She then straightens her jacket. “I appreciate your advice Kit…. but with all due respect this is between me and Bette and what’s best for our son….so please stay out of it…”

Kit inhales, sets her jaw, then nods once. “Fine. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.” She stands and offers Michelle a final, tight smile.

At the edge of the bar, she taps Carla’s shoulder and nods toward Michelle. “Double check to make sure that bitch is off the family-discount list.”

Carla’s eyes flick to Michelle, then back to Kit. She nods, voice low: “Got it, boss.”

Kit glances over at Michelle, her expression a mix of pity and steel. She then pushes through the swinging kitchen door. As it swings shut behind her, her voice drifts back into the dining room. “Dumbass….”

***

The next morning, the towering mahogany doors of the courtroom swing open on groaning hinges that echo through the hollow space, while outside, a persistent drizzle taps a melancholy Morse code against the arched windows. Polished rows of oak benches stretch back toward the imposing rear wall with its faded state seal. A lone clerk with wire-rimmed glasses perches at a glossy black computer stand, her red-tipped fingers tapping in quiet rhythm against the keyboard like a pianist playing a familiar nocturne. Near the entrance, a uniformed bailiff with salt-and-pepper hair lingers, shoulders squared beneath his meticulously pressed jacket, eyes constantly scanning the room with practiced vigilance. A handful of silent observers dot the benches at irregular intervals, their downturned faces bathed in the soft blue glow of phone screens as they scroll absently through digital distractions, waiting for the day’s drama to unfold.

At the far end, the judge’s bench rises like a fortress, its grain gleaming beneath the high, arched windows.

Michelle sits beside her attorney, rigid as a marble statue. She smooths one sleeve of her cardigan again and again, each gesture increasingly desperate, until silence stills her motion entirely. The hush in the room intensifies as the tall double doors at the rear swing open again.

Surrounded by her team of lawyers, a mass of dark suits and leather portfolios, Bette strides in, arm in arm with Tina. The courtroom seems to shift in response to their confidence, heads turning like compass needles finding magnetic north.