The heavy double doors of the courtroom swung shut with a muted thud, sealing away the outside world and trapping the suffocating tension inside. For months, the mere thought of being in the same room as Keith Vanderbilt had sent paralyzing coldness through Sarah's veins. He was a specter that haunted her waking hours and invaded her darkest dreams—a shadow she could never quite outrun. But today was different. Today, she refused to flinch.
Sarah sat erect in the polished wooden gallery, her shoulders squared, her chin held high against the suffocating atmosphere of the room. She was here to face the truth, to stand witness as twelve strangers weighed the fragments of her shattered life and pronounced judgment upon the man who had torn it apart. Whatever the jury decided—whether Keith would be shackled and led away in disgrace, or walk free under a technicality—she was determined to look her tormentor in the eye when the final blow landed.
