Watching from the second row, Liam saw Edward blanch. He turned gray-white, the color of a shark's belly. Edward's lawyer fought him for the paper, which Edward clearly didn't want him to see. Once the old lawyer won the tug-of-war, he too turned shark-belly white.

“As you can see, Your Honor,” Lindsey said as the clerk marked the document and handed it to the judge, “Mr. Hunter is already in serious arrears for child support.”

“Your Honor,” Edward's lawyer said in stentorian tones, “this order is many years old. It was entered for a minor child, who not only is not the concern of this court at this time, but is no longer even a minor!”

“I'm twenty-one,” Rebecca said, standing up.

“Your Honor!” the old, stooped lawyer said as Edward inched lower in his seat and began to look for the exit sign.

“He was ordered to pay child support,” Rebecca said, “beginning the day I was born, when my mother was still in the hospital. She'd been at my aunt's, making curtains for my nursery, and he thought she was having an affair instead, and beat her so badly, she went into early labor.”

Liam saw Lily's mouth open and her eyes fill with tears. They were both remembering the day Rose was born and Lily's anguish.

“Too bad for him,” Rebecca said, “I was born three months premature—three months more that he owes.”

“Your Honor,” Lindsey said, “Mr. Hunter was ordered to pay two thousand dollars a month child support for his daughter. To date, he has never willingly paid one cent. Ms. Houghton had his salary attached for a time, but she lost track of him when he moved nine years ago.”

“That's a lot of unpaid child support, Mr. Hunter,” Judge Porter said.

“Your Honor, the order states that the support ceases after the end of schooling,” Edward's lawyer said feebly. “At twenty-one, the young lady must be finished with college, so I submit—”

“I'm in law school,” Rebecca said. “He's never wanted to meet me, so he doesn't know that. But I've helped my mother file legal documents against him for so long . . .”

Liam smiled up at the young woman, fierce and bright and shining, facing the judge and her father. She was straight and tall, with dark hair—like Lily's, Marisa's, and her mother's. Liam suspected that if they were to track down Mrs. Hunter, Edward's mother, she might turn out to have dark hair too.

“And I want to become a Family Court lawyer,” Rebecca said, staring straight at Edward. “I want to practice advocacy. For women who have been abused by men like my father.”