“Oh, yes,” Magda said. “You can’t swing a cat in this neighborhood without hitting someone you’ve worked with or against.”
“Why would you swing a cat?” Olivia’s expression was almost comical in its disgust.
“It’s an expression, dear.” Abby’s mom squeezed Olivia’s shoulder before rubbing it.
Olivia wrinkled her nose. “Eww.”
Magda chuckled and glanced at her watch. “Our case should be called in a few minutes. Shall we go in?”
A lead weight settled in Abby’s stomach. “If I wanted to take Olivia and run, would you come with us?” she asked Tinker in a low voice.
He kissed the top of her head. “In a heartbeat.”
“Okay. Good.”
“Hey. You’ve got this,” he whispered. “And we’ve got you.”
Abby smiled. “Thank you. Just in case, can you wait out front with the engine running so we can make a fast getaway?”
He grinned and kissed the top of her head.
She was only half joking.
The courtroom was smaller than she’d expected—only five rows of seats behind the two tables facing the judge’s bench. She, Olivia, and her mom sat in the front row with Magda on the left side of the room. Olivia’s guardian ad litem sat on the right side of the room, along with a few other people. A man in a dark blue suit seemed agitated as he talked on his phone.
“Do you see your aunt?” Abby whispered.
Olivia shook her head.
Abby leaned toward Magda. “What happens if her aunt doesn’t show?”
“If she doesn’t have a good reason, she may lose any claim to custody,” Magda said.
“Really?”
Magda nodded.
“Fingers crossed,” Abby said.
“What’s Angie doing?” Olivia whispered.
Abby looked behind them and saw Angie had pulled out a laptop and was typing furiously. “She might have work to do.”
A bailiff and two other women entered and strode down the aisle to the front of the court. One woman sat at a small table to the left of the bench, and the other went to the small table parallel to the other wall. The bailiff knocked on a door behind the small table. It opened and she spoke briefly to the person inside. Stepping to the front of the bench she called, “All rise. The Honorable Eleanore Atwal presiding.”
Everyone stood and waited for the judge to enter and take her seat. “Be seated. Please call the first case.”
The woman at the long table stood with a large manila folder in her hand and approached the bench. “Case 25FA2716, Edith Holder vs Abigail Day—child custody case.”
Magda patted Abby’s knee. “That’s us.”
Abby stood and smoothed down her skirt. She ran a hand over Olivia’s hair and smiled, then followed Magda to a table facing the judge. The man who’d been talking on the phone walked to the other table.
“Good morning, everyone. Counsel, please state your appearance for the record.”
“Good morning, Your Honor. Magda Barber, counsel for the petitioner, Abigail Day and Olivia Holder.”
“Ronald Fritz for the defendant, Edith Holder, Your Honor,” the man at the other table said.
