By Olivia Harper • January 28, 2026 • Share
The rain that morning did not fall politely over Savannah; it came down in sheets, heavy and insistent, the kind of Southern rain that feels personal, as if the sky itself has a grievance. As the courthouse steps glistened under gray clouds, streaked with water and old history, no one paid much attention to the woman standing near the bottom. Her coat was too thin for the weather, her shoes scuffed beyond repair, her hands clenched together as if she were holding herself upright through sheer will alone. Her name was Lydia Moore, and she had not slept more than three hours in four days.
Beside her stood a child who looked wildly out of place in the crowd of polished attorneys and journalists adjusting their umbrellas and checking their phones. She was a little girl drowning in an oversized charcoal blazer, its sleeves rolled up twice, her dark hair braided too tightly by nervous hands that morning, her eyes scanning everything not with fear but with something far more dangerous — attention.
The oak doors of the Superior Court groaned open, releasing a rush of conditioned air and murmured confidence. Inside waited men and women who billed more per hour than Lydia earned in a month cleaning institutional kitchens, men who smiled with their mouths and calculated with their eyes, men who had already decided how this story would end.
At the defense table sat Victor Hale, headmaster of Crestwood Preparatory, one of the most powerful private academies in the state. Beside him lounged Richard Latham, a litigation legend known for turning human suffering into footnotes and settlements into silence. This case, as far as they were concerned, was already dead.
A fired cafeteria worker. No union. No lawyer. A laughable claim of wrongful termination, wrapped in accusations of safety violations that would surely be dismissed as bitterness. When Lydia and her daughter approached the plaintiff’s table, the sound of muffled amusement rippled through the gallery, subtle but unmistakable.
Latham didn’t even bother to hide his smirk. “Your Honor,” he said smoothly, rising before anyone had formally begun, “I must ask whether this is some kind of protest performance. Is the plaintiff intending to represent herself… with a minor present?”
A few people chuckled. Judge Elliot Branham, a man who had worn the robe for twenty-five years and prided himself on efficiency, peered down over his glasses. “Ms. Moore,” he said, measured and distant, “where is your legal counsel?”
Before Lydia could answer — before the fear that had been clawing at her chest for weeks could turn her voice into something small — the chair beside her scraped loudly against the floor. The little girl climbed onto it, her feet swinging above the polished wood, and reached for the microphone with both hands, adjusting it too forcefully so that it screeched, sharp and metallic, slicing through the room and killing every last whisper.
“I’m her lawyer,” the child said. Her voice was clear, trembling only at the edges. “My name is Ava Moore. I’m nine years old. And I represent my mother because no one else would.”
For a fraction of a second, the courtroom forgot how to breathe. Then the laughter came — louder this time, more open, crueler in its confidence. Victor Hale leaned back in his chair, folding his hands as if he were watching an amusing play staged for his benefit, and Richard Latham shook his head slowly, the way one might react to a tragic misunderstanding.
Judge Branham raised a hand for silence, his expression unreadable. “Young lady,” he said carefully, “this is not appropriate. This is a court of law.” Ava nodded once. “That’s why I’m here.” And with that, she placed a battered cardboard folder — decorated with childish doodles and faded marker hearts — onto the polished defense table. Inside it was the beginning of the end.
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