Summary

The courtroom erupts into chatter after the medical examiner finishes speaking. Both attorneys are shocked. Olivia looks over at Asher and his “face is pinched and white. His eyes are closed and his hands are clasped on the table. It looks like he is praying” (446). Olivia is unsure why this news changes the optics of Asher’s trial, but Jordan tells her that everything is more complicated now.

On her way out of court, Olivia stops in the bathroom and runs into Ava Campanello, Lily’s mother. She is immediately stunned and does not know what to say or how to move out of the way. She feels “trapped by the loss of Lily and the potential loss of Asher. If things were reversed—if Asher had been the one to die…I can’t imagine how badly she hurts, how she can...