He Missed the Delivery Room. I Married His Enemy Instead. novel · Chapter 9 of 32

Chapter 9: The Recording

The probate court in Cambridge smelled like radiator dust and wet wool.

The hearing was on a Tuesday, nine days after the fundraiser.

The courtroom was open, and it was full.

Reporters. Two of Davis's campaign staff. Gwyneth, in the second row in dove gray, holding a tissue she hadn't used.

My parents sat behind me.

Grandda sat on the aisle with his tank, wearing his funeral suit, because it was his only suit.

Conall sat in the very last row, alone, his coat on.

My lawyer had asked him to stay home.

He'd said, "I'll sit where she can't see me."

I could see him.

Cornelia sat at the other table with her silver-haired lawyer.

Davis sat behind her.

He didn't look at me.

He looked at his hands, at the signet ring, turning it.

The judge was a woman in her sixties with reading glasses on a chain.

Cornelia's lawyer went first.

He said I'd been suspended from my hospital for unprofessional conduct.

He said I'd disrupted a public event two weeks after giving birth and had to be removed by security.

He said I'd taken up with Conall Byrne.

He turned and pointed to the back row when he said it.

Every head in the room turned with his finger.

Conall looked back at them, calm, his hands in his coat pockets.

"Mr. Byrne has been investigated for racketeering, extortion and assault," the lawyer said. "Mrs. Whitmarsh asks only that her granddaughter be kept safe from that world until her mother's judgment recovers."

"Recovers from what?" the judge asked.

"From the strain of the birth, Your Honor. Her own husband has described her as hormonal."

My mother made a sound behind me.

My lawyer stood up.

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