Protect and Defend by Richard North Patterson

Author:Richard North Patterson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3, pdf
Tags: Judges, Political fiction, Judges - Selection and appointment, Women judges, Abortion, Presidents - United States, Legal, Fiction, Political, Suspense, Presidents, Legal stories, Abortion - Law and legislation
ISBN: 9780345404794
Publisher: Random House, Inc.
Published: 2001-10-30T07:30:33.227766+00:00

THIRTY-TWO

FOR SARAH, the recess—a mere ten minutes—felt endless.

She sat in a bare witness room with Mary Ann, watching a schoolroom-style clock measure out the time before the girl faced her cross-examiner. That so much of this experience involved her mother’s trauma was devastating to both parents and child, and Mary Ann’s exposure of her family’s wounds seemed to have left her listless and depressed.

“You were good,” Sarah encouraged her. “All you need is to stand up for yourself for one more hour.”

Mary Ann’s eyes flickered, the only sign that she had heard. Sarah could feel her absorb the aching knowledge that her relationships with both parents, and theirs with each other, were being changed forever.

This brought Sarah face-to-face with her own responsibilities. She had made decisions as a lawyer would, marshaling evidence and hammering at the Tierneys’ weak points without remorse. As a lawyer, she found little in herself to fault. But though Sarah could tell herself that Congress had written this conflict into law, she could not escape her role in bringing it to this climax. Now the best she could hope for was that Saunders or Thomas Fleming, not Martin Tierney, would cross-examine Mary Ann.

Glancing at the clock, Sarah said, “It’s time.”

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