He Married My Best Friend While I Gave Birth, So I Left novel · Chapter 23 of 24
Chapter 23: The Ruling
The final hearing was on the second Tuesday in January, in the same room with the same judge.
Poppy was three months old and sleeping in a quilted carrier on the table in front of me.
She had my grandmother's quilt tucked around her feet.
Byron sat behind me in the first row, in a clean flannel shirt and a tie he'd borrowed from his lawyer.
The lawyer had been paid in a case of cider and a promise about the spring crop.
Across the aisle, Brady sat alone, with no attorney and no mother.
He didn't look up.
Eleanor sat at the very back of the room, in gray and not in camel, beside a man from the prosecutor's office with a legal pad.
Nobody sat next to her on the other side.
Daphne sat three rows behind Brady, near the door, with a hand on her belly, which was round now.
She caught my eye once and then looked at the floor.
The judge took the bench and opened a thick file.
"This is the final hearing on custody of the minor child Poppy Mercer," she said. "The petition by Mr. Angell and his mother was withdrawn in October. What remains is Ms. Mercer's request for sole custody, the dissolution of her marriage, and the matter of the guardianship trust."
She turned a page.
"I'll start with the marriage. Mr. Angell signed the dissolution and an acknowledgment that he is not the child's father. Mr. Angell, do you stand by that?"
"Yes, Your Honor," said Brady, without lifting his head.
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