The change was coming, I could see it from a few step backs. The split was inevitable, as sure as a breeze on the lakes, but I wasn’t expecting it like this. Her debt owing was significant, we have been partners for years - I’ve seen most of her, she’s seen all of me. We have had each other’s backs in amongst the vipers, we’d taken our fair share of venom for each other.

Staring at her across the courtroom, I could see in her nervous hands that she wasn’t comfortable with how we’ve laid it out. No... not capable, not of seeing my devotion and protection as any more than cheap sentiment compared to the weight of her morality; but I needed her too. I tried peering through the side her head to get attention, so that I could see in her eyes a comfort to tide me over to her eventual exoneration. A comfort that I knew wasn’t forthcoming.

She steadied herself and spoke, clearly from the back of her throat, with a forcefulness that made it clear she had made her decision. ‘Yes, it was him’. She shifted her gaze towards me just as I closed my desperate eyes.