He turned back to the judge. “Don’t judge Pru’s fitness as a parent based on her behavior since I came into her life. She is an amazing mother, and Ari shouldn’t be anywhere else. I’m the problem in all of this. I’m the reason we’re standing here. I’m the reason Miss Coogan wants to take Ari away.” He paused, his throat working, before he squared his shoulders and looked at Judge Moseley. “So take me out of the equation. Let Ari stay with her mother, and I’ll go.”
There was a sound like a dying animal. A short, sharp cry of pain. Pru didn’t realize it had come from her until everybody turned to look at her. But she could only stare at Flynn.
He was going to leave her. After everything they’d been through, he was going to leave. She’d be alone. Again. The shock of it was a stunning agony that left her breathless.
“No.” The word came out barely above a whisper.
But Flynn heard it. He took a step toward her, his face twisted with regret. “Mo chroí—”
Ari exploded up from her seat. “Why are adults so stupid?”
Horrified, Pru reached for her, but the girl jerked away.
“The rules are stupid!” Her shout echoed through the courtroom, all her teenage outrage spilling out in a torrent. “Flynn loves Pru. Period. End of story. Why should it matter when or for how long or why? The three of us are better together, and only a total moron would think otherwise.”
It was all too much. Pru’s world was positively crumbling around her. Flynn had just stabbed her through the heart, and her child was pitching a hissy fit in front of the man who would be deciding her fate. Somehow, she kept her voice even. “Honey, we don’t call people stupid or morons.”
She stamped her foot, flinging her arms out to encompass the entire assembly of adults in the room. “But they are, Mom!”
Robert cleared his throat in a way that sounded suspiciously like a laugh. “Uh, your honor, I beg the court’s indulgence to present some additional evidence as to the verisimilitude of the relationship between Miss Reynolds and Mr. Bohannon.”
“What evidence?” Lydia Coogan demanded. She might have said more, but a sharp glance from Judge Moseley shut her up.
“Counselor, approach the bench please.”
Robert moved to the front of the courtroom and spoke to the judge in a low voice. Pru kept her eyes on him. She didn’t dare look at Flynn again. Not after that whole speech. She’d break, and she didn’t have that luxury.
“Very well, you may proceed.”
With what? Pru wondered.
Robert strode to the back of the courtroom and opened the doors. “Come on in.”
People poured into the courtroom—Abbey, Logan, Porter, Ford McIntosh, Crystal, Reverend Hodgeson, Denver, Cayla, Clyde Parker, Kacy and her parents. They kept on coming, until it seemed half the population of Eden’s Ridge filled the rows of seats.
Pru leaned back to whisper to Kennedy, “What are they all doing here?”
“I called them.”
“Why?”
“Because I knew he was going to do this, and I wanted you both to have a fighting chance.”
One after another, Robert called people up and asked them questions about Flynn, about their impressions of him, his involvement with the community since he came to Eden’s Ridge, and about his relationship with Pru. One after another, they supported Pru and Flynn, as a couple and as prospective parents. With each testimony, Lydia Coogan’s face flushed further.
When everyone was through, Robert faced the judge. “I believe evidence indicates the legitimacy of the relationship and the type of parents Miss Reynolds and Mr. Bohannon actually are.”
Judge Moseley looked at Flynn. “Mr. Bohannon, you claim to love this woman.”
“With all my heart, sir.”
“Do you actually want to leave her?”
Flynn turned his gaze on Pru and she felt the punch of it down to her marrow. “No. I’d sooner have my fiddle hand broken.”
“And do you actually want to walk away from this child?”
“Absolutely not, your honor.”