From Secret Desire for My Stepbrother to Reality novel · Chapter 31 of 32

Chapter 31: The Last Room

The courtroom on the ninth floor held a hundred and forty people.

We filled it by eight fifteen.

The STILL WAITING shirts were back, with the STILL crossed out.

The woman from Tacoma sat in the front row of the gallery in a blazer instead of her vest.

She said it was a special occasion.

Kath sat at the end of the row with her hands in her lap, because she'd testified in March and was allowed to watch now.

The reviewer sat beside her and held one of them.

The board chair sat three rows back in her camel coat.

She'd been asked back on the board in January.

She nodded at me once, and that was all.

My mother had her red glasses on her nose.

Pete had his cap on his knee.

Jem sat next to me in the blue shirt.

Tomorrow I was going to marry him.

Today I was going to watch.

Tom came in at eight fifty with one lawyer.

He wore a navy suit.

No headset.

No merino.

He looked like any man in a suit, which was the thing he'd always been most afraid of.

He saw the gallery.

He saw me.

He sat down at his table and didn't turn around again.

The judge came in at nine.

He was an older man with a slow voice, and he didn't waste any of it.

He read the findings in six minutes.

Nobody in the gallery heard anything they didn't already know.

They listened anyway.

"I've read the email," the judge said. "Several times. I'd like to read one line of it into the record."

He put on his glasses.

"Row one stays held. Personal."

He took his glasses off.

"Mr. Sedgwick, is there anything you want to say before I rule?"

Tom stood up.

He buttoned his jacket.

Then he turned around, away from the judge, and looked at me across the rail.

"Lindy," he said. "I kept it because..."

"Mr. Sedgwick."

The judge didn't raise his voice.

"You'll address the court. Not the gallery."

Tom stood there for a second with his mouth open.

There was no stage.

There was no screen.

There was nobody in the room who wanted to hear the rest of his sentence.

He turned back around.

"No, Your Honor," he said. "Nothing."

He sat down.

The judge ruled.

Every member would be paid back every dollar they'd been charged while a match was held.

Every Heard reveal would be refunded.

Thirty-eight point six million dollars.

Hush and Tom Sedgwick, personally, jointly and severally.

And for ten years, Tom couldn't run any company that held a single person's private data.

Nobody cheered.

The judge had asked us not to, and we'd promised.

In the front row, the woman from Tacoma reached back over her shoulder without looking.

I took her hand, and she squeezed so hard my ring bit into my finger.

← Chapter 30 · All chapters · Chapter 32 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend