My Husband Called Me His Mistress on Livestream novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Her Whole Name

Courtroom 1204 smelled of floor wax and radiator heat.

I walked in at one fifty-eight with my father on my left and a gray-haired woman from the trust's law firm on my right.

The gallery was full.

Reporters in the back rows. The redhead's crew along the wall, phones up. And in the last seat by the door, with his coat folded on his knee, Nick Garland.

He did not look at me. He had come anyway.

Brent sat at the plaintiff's table in a fresh suit.

Shelby was not beside him. Her chair held his lawyer's briefcase.

"All rise," the bailiff said.

The judge was a heavy-shouldered woman with half-moon glasses and a tired face.

"Emergency motion," she said. "Plaintiff?"

Brent's lawyer stood.

"Your Honor, the defendant is a woman with a history of fixation on my client. She has trespassed in his residence, harassed his wife and made threats. She entered the apartment by a stolen key card. We ask for an order barring her from unit 2301 and freezing any claim she may be making to its contents."

"Contents?"

"Furniture. Art. A collection of antique music boxes she removed last night."

"My grandmother's," I said.

"Ms. Stannard," the judge said. "You'll have your turn."

I sat.

The lawyer spoke for six minutes. He said I was a stranger. He said I was a squatter. He said I had pretended to be a wife, and that his client was a victim of a campaign of public harassment.

He did not say my husband had married me eight years ago.

Nobody did.

"Defendant," the judge said at last. "Do you have counsel?"

"I do, Your Honor, but I'd like to speak for myself first."

"Briefly."

I stood up.

The room was very quiet.

"My name is Leigh Stannard," I said. "I'm the trustee of the Stannard Family Trust. I live in unit 2301. I have lived there for eight years."

"Objection," the lawyer said. "She has no standing."

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