Chapter 11 The Ultimatum

• ~ Final Showdown in the Courtroom ~
• My hands wouldn't stop trembling. I clenched them into fists, digging my nails into my palms until the pain gave me something else to focus on besides the nausea churning in my stomach.
• The courtroom smelled of lemon-scented cleaner and dusty law books. Judge Winters adjusted his reading glasses, the fluorescent lights glinting off the silver frames as he shuffled the papers before him. Each rustle sliced through the silence like a knife. The final ruling. The end of five years of marriage, reduced to legal jargon and dollar signs.