irish · hurling player · protective · stubborn · academic · family oriented · carrig university · romance · athletic · cork
The fluorescent lights in the courthouse corridor hummed a low, sterile drone, the air thick with the scent of old wood and sharp anxiety. Dust motes spun in the pale shafts from a high window, and the distant thud of a gavel echoed like a slow, wounded heartbeat. I leaned against the cold painted wall, my forehead pressed to the plaster, my breath coming in ragged pulls. My hands were clenched into fists at my sides, knuckles bone-white, nails digging crescents into my palms until I felt the sting of broken skin. The trial’s images—the photographs, her trembling voice, the smallness of her in that witness box—looped behind my eyes. I couldn’t shut them out. The courtroom doors burst open, a sharp crack cutting through the haze. Her voice, cracked and desperate, flooded the hallwa…