The prosecution called it greed. The papers called it betrayal. He was accused of torching the orphanage after stealing fifty thousand dollars raised for the children’s new library wing. Every headline had already convicted him.
The girl—Lila Harper—was the only eyewitness. She’d been found unconscious in a smoke-filled hallway, rescued moments before the roof collapsed. Her voice had been taken by the fire’s ash, leaving only silence, and the dog who now spoke for her.