My Sister's Baby Was My Husband's, So I Wed Beside Them novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: Nine O'Clock

The courtroom on the third floor held forty people, and every seat was taken.

Somebody had posted the church video.

Reporters sat in the back with notebooks, and the neighbors from my street filled two benches.

Dalton sat at the left table in a navy suit, shaved and calm.

Beside him was the man in the camel coat, and behind him, in the first row, sat Hailey with the baby in her lap.

Ivy was between them in a blue dress I had never seen.

She saw me and her whole face lit.

I held up my left hand and wiggled my fingers, and she held up her small right hand and did the same.

"All rise," said the bailiff.

The judge was a gray-haired woman with half-glasses and no patience at all.

She read the petition in silence.

Then she looked over her glasses at Dalton's lawyer.

"Counsel. You allege abandonment."

"Yes, Your Honor. Mrs. Pflueger left the marital home at night, with a minor child, and took shelter with a man she had known for three days."

"She was locked out, according to the response."

"She was given a full hour to collect her belongings."

My lawyer rose.

She was a small, brisk woman with a gray braid, and she had given me exactly one rule that morning in the hall: *Don't look at him.*

"Your Honor, the respondent also submits the petitioner's own words, recorded in his study the night this began, and the divorce petition he printed three weeks before the child's aunt gave birth."

"I've read the transcript." The judge's mouth went flat. "It's an unusual father who offers a mother Sundays."

Dalton's lawyer cleared his throat.

"We submit Exhibit C, Your Honor. The corrected hospital chart. It shows the child's aunt was in danger at ten to three that night, which explains why Mrs. Pflueger's account of the evening is, at best, confused."

"Signed by?"

"The attending physician."

"Is he here?"

The lawyer paused.

From the back of the courtroom, a chair scraped.

← Chapter 17 · All chapters · Chapter 19 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend