Chapter 133

Matt's testimony had been the most damning. His tape had been played for the court since he was deployed, and his words haunted me. He was angry, and it came through in every word he recorded. Blame lay at my feet. I had known his would be bad but hoped it hadn't held as much weight since he wasn't here to deliver it himself. Seeing his face, witnessing his devastation, every member of the jury would have identified with his anger and likely marinated in it. But his hadn't been the testimony I'd hated hearing. I dreaded the details I knew were going to come from the prosecutor's expert medical witness. He wasn't here to talk about mine or Joshua's specific case-he came to educate the courtroom on the process of the human body, adult and child, failing due to heatstroke. I'd spent far too much time researching this over the last few months, and it was gory.

"Heatstroke causes the body to shut down. It's a multi-system organ failure where respiratory, cardiovascular, and nervous system