His Three-Day Girlfriend novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: Day Thirty

The judge threw out the guardianship petition on the Monday after the gala.

She did it in four minutes, with the clinic's lawyers sitting empty-handed at the other table.

"The petitioner's own physician has put a written log before this court showing the patient recovered a year ago," she said. "Petition denied. Ms. Hartwell, you are free to go wherever you like."

I walked out of that courtroom alone, into a day with no one's name written on it.

It was the first morning of the thirty days, and I did not know what to do with my hands.

So I rented a room.

It was a studio above a bakery, with one big window and a floor that smelled of old flour.

I bought a drawing table with the first money I had made in fourteen months, from a magazine that wanted a cover, and I set it in the light.

That was the whole job I allowed myself to think about.

The rest of my life belonged to a different calendar.

Colin's father was charged in the second week, along with the doctor and the nurse who'd carried the tray.

Dane took a plea for what he did on the couch.

Poppy posted a video apologizing to her followers with her hair down, and nobody on earth believed a word of it.

I read the news at Bridget's kitchen table on Sundays, with a pancake going cold.

"Sixteen counts," Bridget said, tapping the paper. "The fountain's been drained."

"Good."

"You want me to say it?"

"Say it."

"I told you so."

We both laughed until she had to wipe her eyes.

On day twenty-two, I went to a hearing.

It was in a beige room with a long table and five tired members of the state pharmacy board.

Elliot sat at the far end, in a gray suit, with a lawyer beside him.

He saw me come in.

He did not stand up, and he did not speak, and he didn't look away either.

I had told him thirty days.

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