Madly Yours novel · Chapter 26 of 32
Chapter 26: The Hearing
The courtroom was on the fourth floor, wood paneling and a flag and a judge in her sixties with reading glasses on a chain.
Every seat was taken.
Reporters filled the back two rows.
The detective sat at the end of the last one, with his phone in his hand and his eyes on the door.
He'd told Leland in the hall that he was waiting on a call from San Mateo County.
My mother and stepfather sat behind our table.
My mother had her hands knotted in her lap.
She didn't look at me.
Gran sat beside them in a navy suit I'd never seen, with her red sneakers on.
The uncle sat at the other table in his camel coat, tan and calm, with two lawyers.
He watched me come in on Leland's arm and smiled.
He leaned to his lawyer and didn't lower his voice.
"Look at her. She can't even say good morning."
He was right.
I'd tried in the car, in the elevator, in the ladies' room with the tap running.
Nothing came.
The uncle's lawyer went first.
He told the judge that Leland Halstead had faked an illness for two years and announced it on the steps of his own company in a manic state.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–16 of Madly Yours are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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