Chapter 40 : The Monday of all Mondays

*Amelia’s POV*

As I pulled into the parking lot, the morning sun cast a blinding glare through the windshield. My head pulsed with a dull ache, and my eyelids felt heavy. I had stayed out too late with James. The night had been filled with a sexual energy and guilt.

When I got home around eleven-thirty, Adrian had called me twice and texted me once, but I sent him to voicemail. Lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, my mind raced with anxiety early into the morning.

With a sigh, I exited my car and jogged up the steps into the courthouse. As I entered through the double doors, my calves burned from moving so hastily in my heels. There was a lonely desk in front where an older woman sat hunched over scribbling something in her notepad with intense concentration.

She always sat there on Mondays drawing portraits of the people who waited in the lobby, and she'd been doing it for as long as I knew. Her name was Margaret, and everyone in the courthouse treated her like their grandma.