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My chest feels too tight at the resolution in her eyes, and I have a swelling feeling inside that makes it just a little harder to breathe. Dani keeps talking, looking at Purrgood with concentration as she draws patterns into his belly, but her words are harder to make out with the sudden thumping of my pulse, which sounds deafening in my ears.

If you had asked me all those months ago if I ever thought I would be here with her like this, that she would be casually enjoying my touch and my space while doing her best to help me, toreassureme, I would have told you that you were crazy. I can’t even pinpoint a direct path to how we got here, but I’m suddenly struck with the realization that there is absolutely nowhere I would rather be. That this prickly woman with her hidden smile and her fierce demeanor has somehow become the reason I get out of bed in the morning, the person I think about just before I go to sleep. She’s becomeeverything.

And I’m completely, irrevocably in love with her.

She keeps rambling about old court cases, talking to herself like it’s a problem she can work around and arrive at a solution all on her own, completely oblivious to the revelation I’m having only a few feet away. WhatwouldDani do if she knew? Would she run away? Would she hide? Could she ever feel the same about me?

I know it’s too soon to tell her. That Dani’s walls are more fragile now but by no means broken down, and I urge my racing heart to calm, begging my heavy tongue to stay silent. Because I canwait, I tell myself. Until she’s ready to hear it. I’ll wait as long as it takes for her.

Because I meant it, what I told her all those weeks ago. That she’s absolutely worth staying for.

And that’s exactly what I intend to do.

Twenty-Six

Dani

“Now, when hecalls you to the stand, don’t give them any emotion,” I remind Bianca as we settle into our seats at the front of the courtroom.

Bianca gives me an imperious look. “When have I struck you as emotional, Danica?”

“Fair,” I sigh. “I just know they’re going to throw everything they have at you today.”

“I am prepared for what this man wants to say about me,” she says with a cluck of her tongue. “I do not fear a man just because he wears a suit.”

I grin, shaking my head as I jot something down. “Just remember what we talked about,” I encourage. “Stick to what we rehearsed. No more surprises.”

“You must let things go, Danica,” Bianca huffs. “Your long memory will give you wrinkles if you are not careful.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I chuckle. I really do sort of love this woman.

I hear the chair opposite our table scraping across the floor, turning my head as Ezra settles into his seat. I’ve gotten very goodat keeping my expression neutral when we’re in court; the last thing I need is for someone to catch meoglinghim, as he puts it, but I have to admit that he looks…utterly delicious in his three-piece navy suit. He flashes me a smile from his seat, and I have to bite my lip not to return it, allowing myself only a few seconds to appreciate the way his suit jacket hugs his broad shoulders perfectly before giving my attention back to my notepad in front of me.

Still my mind wanders to the night before—a quiet, easy night of Thai food in my living room while Ezra told me stories about his first disastrous mock trial in second year. I almost smile at the memory; his animated recounting of forgetting all the precedents he’d memorized the moment he approached the stand had me laughing at an embarrassing decibel. He’d slept over, and I have to admit, waking up with his warm body wrapped around me hadn’t been the worst thing in the world.

Not that I’ll ever admit that to him.

“I see Lorenzo’s puttana is now attending,” Bianca mutters.

I turn to see Lorenzo’s mistress sitting in the seats on their side of the courtroom, my eyes widening. That’s a bold fucking move. Especially since it’s barely been a week since she fucked up on the stand and forgot her imaginary diagnosis. What the hell are they playing at?

“You can’t say ‘whore’ in court,” I hiss back.

“It is fine if no one knows I say it,” she says, waving me off.

“All rise,” the bailiff announces, quieting the ripple of low conversation throughout the room. The bailiff introduces the session, then the judge. “The Honorable Judge Harding is presiding.”

We all remain standing while Judge Harding enters the room and gets settled in her chair, only taking our seats when she gives us permission to do so.

“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen,” Harding drones. “Let’s all try to stay civil today, shall we?”

Bianca’s spine stiffens beside me, and I try not to flinch. There have been a few heated sessions in the last couple of weeks, I suppose. I had to physically clap a hand over Bianca’s mouth several times when Lorenzo’s mistress was on the stand last week.

Harding peers over her glasses at her notes in front of her. “I believe Mrs. Casiraghi is set to take the stand today, correct?”

“That’s correct, Your Honor,” Ezra answers, standing.

Harding nods at Bianca. “Mrs. Casiraghi.” She tilts her head toward the stand. “If you will.”