He Married My Best Friend While I Gave Birth, So I Left novel · Chapter 46 of 48

Chapter 46: Denied

Lacey's POV

The prosecutor read the charges standing, in a dry flat voice, to a room that had stopped breathing.

Theft from a company by its own chair, three hundred and eight thousand dollars across sixteen years.

Falsifying business records, one count for every payroll line marked consulting.

Eleanor's lawyer said the board had no standing.

The judge said the board was the victim and had every standing there was.

"The state will ask the court for consecutive time," the prosecutor said. "Up to thirty-six additional months."

Thirty-six months.

I looked at Eleanor, because I had waited a year to see what her face would do.

It did nothing at first.

She sat with her hands folded and her pearls catching the window light.

She looked at the judge and did not blink.

"Mrs. Angell is remanded," said the judge. "The motion is denied. Court is adjourned."

The bailiff touched her arm.

She stood.

At the end of our bench, the silver-haired woman had risen too, with her handbag on her wrist.

"Eleanor," she said, and her voice carried clear across the rail. "I'm going to tell you three things, and then I'll leave you to your guard."

Eleanor turned her head.

"The Brookhaven Club accepted your resignation on Friday. I seconded the motion to accept it."

"I have not resigned," said Eleanor.

"You have. I signed it for you." The silver-haired woman didn't blink. "The house in Columbus is in the restitution lien. The board will sell it in the spring, and the money goes back to the company you took it from. And the stand is yours no longer. The name comes off the sign."

The courtroom had gone so quiet that I could hear a pen roll off the court reporter's desk.

Eleanor's smile was still on her face.

It had been there since the hearing began.

It had been there in the club dining room, and in the hospital hall with the car seat.

She turned and looked at the one person left that she hadn't spoken to.

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