Old Maid For My Room, Young Maid For His Bed, I Kicked All Three Out novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: Hearing

Joanna's POV

The courtroom was smaller than I had pictured, with a flag, a low bench and a clock that ran four minutes slow.

Craig sat at the left table in a navy suit, with a lawyer who cost more per hour than Dorothea had earned in a month.

I sat at the right with mine, a tired woman in a green wool jacket who had told me to say as little as possible.

Erik sat in the front row behind me with Eli's mittens in his lap.

Eli was at school.

I had decided that on Saturday and not once changed my mind.

The judge came in and sat and read the file without looking up.

"Emergency motion for sole custody," she said. "Mr. Granlund's counsel."

Craig's lawyer stood.

He was smooth and he was good, and I understood in the first minute why Craig had picked him.

"Your Honor, my client's wife suffered two pregnancy losses in fourteen months. She has been under the care of household staff and a physician, and in the last month she has left the home for a night with a man not her husband."

The judge's pen paused.

"He has photographs," the lawyer said.

"I'm sure he does," said the judge. "Is the other man a danger to the child?"

"We believe, Your Honor, that Mrs. Granlund's judgment..."

"Mrs. Granlund is thirty-one," the judge said. "Who she spends a night with is not before this court. I'll ask you to move on."

Craig's jaw tightened.

My lawyer rose, very slowly.

"Your Honor, we have three witnesses," she said. "I'll be short."

The first was Craig's boss.

He came in a gray suit and stood in the witness box with his large hands folded.

"I've employed Mr. Granlund for nine years," he said. "As of Monday, I do not. I watched him tell his own mother his wife was going to a spa when it was a locked ward. I will say that under oath, or in any other room you like."

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