The Surrogate Wife novel · Chapter 7 of 16

Chapter 7: On the Record

The clerk read the first case on the calendar.

"Lindell versus Lindell. Motion to continue emergency orders."

Tusk stood up slowly.

He buttoned his jacket twice because he missed the first time.

"Your Honor, I'm not sure what's happening."

"Then let's make it clear," Harriet said. She turned to me. "Judge Thurston."

I leaned toward the microphone.

"For the record, I am Lillian Thurston Lindell, the respondent in this matter."

A woman in the gallery actually gasped.

"I was sworn in as a judge of this court on Friday. I have no role in deciding this case. I am recusing myself from it, and from anything that touches it."

I stood up.

I unzipped the robe and folded it over the back of my chair.

Under it I was wearing a plain grey dress.

I walked down the two steps and through the little gate.

I sat down in the empty chair next to Isaac.

He slid a legal pad toward me.

Across the aisle, Peter was staring at me.

"You're a judge?" he said.

Tusk put a hand on his arm.

"You were a waitress," Elaine said. It came out loud and shaky. "You worked at a diner."

"For a year," I said. "After I stepped down. You never asked what I did before."

"You lied to us."

"I told you my name the day we met. You didn't think I was worth looking up."

Harriet tapped her pen once on the bench.

"Mrs. Lindell. Senior Mrs. Lindell. You'll address the court or nobody."

Elaine sat down.

Tusk tried.

He said the respondent's secret career was an attempt to intimidate the court.

"Mr. Tusk, I trained her," Harriet said. "I don't intimidate easily. Proceed on the merits."

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