The Verdict on My Husband the Judge: GUILTY novel Chapter 19

Chapter 3

Theo’s hand froze mid–drag on his cigarette.

He stepped closer, eyes bloodshot and tired.“Jules, you can’t make me lose both of you at the same time. I won’t accept that.”

His gaze lingered on me for a long moment. “After tomorrow, I’ll make it up to you. I promise.”

Then he turned and left, and all I could see was Bianca’s twisted, triumphant smile.

I don’t remember when I finally passed out, only the sharp, tearing pain in my abdomen and the warm gush of blood pooling beneath me.

Through my fading vision, I caught the flash of shock on Bianca’s face–followed immediately by cold satisfaction.

When I opened my eyes again, I was in a hospital bed.

My hand went instinctively to my stomach and found it horribly empty. The sensation was sickeningly familiar,

and that’s when it hit me what that pain had been.

I’d lost another baby.

*BANG.*

Theo kicked the door open and stormed into the room.

He hurled a stack of medical reports at my face. “What the fuck, Juliette! How can you be this vicious!”

“Barely able to carry your own child, and now you’re after Blanca’s too?”

My eyes went wide as I grabbed the papers off the blanket. The patient information had obvious signs of tampering, and the name printed across the top read clear as day: Bianca Moreau.

She switched our reports.

Theo’s face twisted with disgust. “I thought even if you weren’t as good–hearted as Bianca, you at least had some decency left. But this? Killing an innocent life?”

“You make me sick.”

I watched him walk out, my outstretched hand falling uselessly back to the bed.

That’s when Bianca strolled in, carrying a thermos of French veal stew.

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The Verdict on My Husband the Judge: GUILTY

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Chapter 3

She was grinning. “How’s it feel to lose your own kid and get blamed for mine?”

She ladled out a bowl and held it toward me with mock concern.

“Don’t be upset now. Have some stew–you’re the one who needs to recover after all…”

I said nothing, just stared at her coldly.

Then Bianca suddenly stumbled backward like she’d been shoved, taking the thermos down with her.

Hot stew splashed all over her clothes and left angry red marks blooming across her pale arms.

She shrieked. “AHHH! IT BURNS!”

“Bianca!”

Theo burst back through the door and immediately pulled her into his arms. “Are you okay? What happened?”

Bianca’s eyes filled with tears. “I just wanted to apologize to Juliette, I didn’t think she’d—”

Theo’s glare snapped to me like a whip. “Enough, Juliette! That’s ENOUGH!”

He scooped Bianca up in his arms, his voice dripping with contempt.

“You’re just as ruthless as Sander Blackwood. Hell, you two deserve each other. Maybe I should’ve sent you to him from the start.”

“The Blackwood gala’s about to begin anyway. Someone get her ready and deliver her there.”

They bound my wrists and ankles, did my makeup to look like Bianca, and paraded me through a sea of leering, knowing stares before locking me inside Sander’s private suite.

The gala went on for hours–he finally arrived.

When he stepped through the door and I saw his face clearly for the first time, I froze.

“Wait… it’s you?”

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