Chapter 5 - The Court of Ruin

The rotunda of the Third Circuit Family Court was swarming with reporters by the time our black town car pulled up to the curb on Friday morning.

Julian had clearly tipped off the press. He wanted a public execution. The headlines on the local news sites were already screaming: *SOCIETY HEIR FIGHTS TO RESCUE NEWBORN FROM UNSTABLE EX-WIFE.*

When Marcus, Chloe, and I stepped through the metal detectors, the flashes went off like a wall of lightning. Marcus walked on my left, his tall frame shielding me from the shoving cameramen, while Chloe flanked my right, her briefcase held like a battering ram. I held Arthur tightly against my chest, wrapped in a thick cashmere blanket that hid his tiny face from the blinding strobe lights.

May you like

My fiancé let his friend chop off my mother’s waist-length

My husband spent the night with another woman

My husband brought his mistress to our nine-year-old daughter’s dance

Inside Courtroom 302, the atmosphere was suffocating.

Eleanor Vance sat at the petitioner’s table, dressed in a bespoke black Chanel suit, her silver hair styled into an immaculate chignon. Beside her sat Julian, wearing a navy pinstripe suit, his face composed into an expression of dignified, paternal grief for the benefit of the gallery. Their legal team consisted of four senior partners from *Caldwell & Croft*, the most expensive litigation firm in the state.