As the bailiff approached with handcuffs, Delilah’s mind drifted back twenty-five years, to a rainy night when three scared boys with nowhere else to go had knocked on her door and changed her life forever.

“Ma’am, I need you to stand.” The bailiff’s voice was gentler than she expected.

“Wait!”

The voice came from the back of the courtroom, deep and commanding. Heads turned. A tall man in an expensive charcoal suit strode down the center aisle, his presence immediately shifting the room’s energy. Behind him, two other men followed, their faces a strange mix of fury and grief.