Chapter 22 · First Line of Blood

The red stamp on the summons said EMERGENCY in letters bigger than anything else on the page. The clerk read our docket number like it was a grocery list. And Caspian smiled at me from the petitioner's table like we were still engaged.

Three feet of polished wood between us. Five years of my life in that smile. I wanted to take it off his face with the letter opener chained to the rail.

"Ms. Vance." Judge Okonjo didn't look up from the file. "You're counsel of record for the respondent. And you're also the respondent's—" she turned a page, "—carrier."

"The word is pregnant, Your Honor. It's in the dictionary. Page four hundred."

Somebody in the gallery snorted. Marcus didn't. He sat behind me with his hands folded on his knee like a man waiting for a tailor, and the whole room could feel him not moving.

Bertram Kline stood up for Caspian and started the way they all start. "Your Honor, this is a family trust worth eleven billion dollars. My client is a named beneficiary. He is asking for one thing—"

"He's asking for three," I said.

"—one thing. A freeze, pending determination of heir status.