She Called the Bride the Help, So I Read the Bill Aloud novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: Her Terms

The judge took less than ten minutes.

He was an elderly man with a bad hip and a pair of half-glasses.

He read the petition twice while my lawyer sat beside me with her gray braids over her shoulder.

Anson's lawyer, a young man in a new suit, rose and said that his client did not oppose.

Anson sat behind him with his hands clasped.

He did not look at me, which was the kindest thing he had done in weeks.

Priscilla's chair was empty.

She had left for her sister's house in Atlanta on Sunday night, with two suitcases and a driver.

A sign planted at the foot of the Bellwood drive.

"The Court finds that the marriage was procured by misrepresentation of material fact," the judge said, "and is void from its inception. The petition is granted."

He banged the gavel once.

"Void from the beginning?" I whispered to my lawyer.

"It means it never existed," she whispered back. "Congratulations. You were never married."

"I had three hours of it."

"Then you had three hours of something else," she said.

I walked out of the courthouse into the June sun with a certified paper in my hand and my name unchanged on it.

Joelle Ferrand.

Reuben was waiting on the steps, where he had waited in April. He had his hands in his pockets.

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