PART 4 — THE JUDGE’S ORDER
Judge Brooks did not speak for several seconds.
The entire courtroom waited.
Then he leaned into the microphone.
“Mr. Mercer, step away from counsel table.”
Mercer’s eyes widened.
“Your Honor—”
“Now.”
The bailiff moved closer.
Mercer looked toward the exit.
Judge Brooks saw it.
“Bailiff, secure the doors.”
The courtroom doors closed.
For the first time that day, Charles Mercer looked afraid.
Judge Brooks turned to Ethan.
“You were very brave.”
Ethan’s face crumpled.
“I just wanted them to stop calling my mom crazy.”
Maya covered her mouth again, but this time she was not crying from shame.
She was crying because someone had finally believed her.
Judge Brooks looked at Oliver.
“Oliver, do you want to sit with Maya Cole?”
The little boy hesitated.
Then he looked at Ethan.
Ethan nodded.
Oliver stepped down from the witness box.
Maya opened her arms.
He ran into them.
The courtroom watched as a mother held the child she had been told was dead for six years.
No one spoke.
Even the reporters lowered their cameras.
Judge Brooks’s voice turned colder.
“Pending emergency DNA testing and criminal investigation, this court suspends all Bennett custody claims. Mr. Mercer will remain available for questioning.”
Mercer whispered, “This will ruin everything.”
Ethan looked at him.
“No,” he said. “You ruined everything.”
The bailiff took Mercer by the arm.
But before he was led away, Judge Brooks opened the envelope that had come with Dolores’s recorder.
Inside was a folded list.
He read the first name.
Then the second.
Then the third.
His face changed.
Maya looked up.
“What is it?”
Judge Brooks stared at the paper in his hand.
May you like
His voice was quiet.
“There are more children.”
