The Verdict on My Husband the Judge: GUILTY novel Chapter 30

Chapter 7

The year I took my high school entrance exams, something clicked.

I didn’t just pass–I dominated. Top score in the entire city.

Every competitive high school in the area started calling.

Full scholarships. Honors programs. The works.

Mom turned them all down and committed me to Lincoln High.

For a minute, I actually felt relief.

Maybe I’d been too hard on her.

Maybe all those years of resentment had twisted my perspective.

She couldn’t have actually killed Blair when we were kids.

And she’d been drowning trying to manage us both. Of course she took the path of least resistance and told me to just give in.

I started telling myself it made sense. That I should let it go.

I even planned to get her something nice for her birthday. Si her down. Apologize for being so difficult. Try to move

forward.

Then I found out why she’d really chosen Lincoln.

Not because it was the best school.

But because they had a sibling placement guarantee.

Enroll me now, and in two years when Blair took her exams they’d accept her automatically–with lower standards.

Mom wasn’t sacrificing those scholarships for my benefit.

She was buying Blair’s way in.

Lincoln was technically the top public school.

But Roosevelt Prep and Central Academy were practically identical–same caliber teachers, same college acceptance rates, better campus even.

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The Verdict on My Husband the Judge: GUILTY

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Chapter 7

And they’d both offered me everything Lincoln wouldn’t.

Full rides. Private dorm where Pumpkin could live with me. Unlimited meal plan. Cleaning service.

All I had to do was focus on school.

Lincoln offered nothing close.

I completely lost it.

Destroyed the living room. Shattered every dish I could get my hands on. Told her I was going to Roosevelt and there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it.

I wasn’t sacrificing my future for Blair’s. Not anymore.

Mom collapsed into tears.

“She’s your sister. Why can’t you help her just this once?”

I was so far past done.

“You spent my entire childhood telling me family is practice for the real world,” I said, voice flat. “That competition is natural. That I should fight for what I want.

“Well, I fought. I won. Everything I have, I earned. She’s a failure. She’s lazy. Why should she get to ride my coattails?

“When she beat me bloody every day for years, you told me should’ve fought harder. That it was my fault for being

weak.

“Now I’m the strong one, and you want me to carry her? She’s the screwup here. Why aren’t you screaming at her?”

Mom’s face crumpled. “Why do you have to be so cruel? That was so long ago. Why can’t you just let it go?”

Even Dad–who’d been softening toward me lately–looked disturbed.

“We provide for you. If you want privacy and good food, we can arrange that at home. You don’t need Roosevelt’s charity.

“Just… help your sister out a little. It won’t hurt you. You’re being-”

Selfish. That’s what he wanted to say.

Maybe he was right.

But I didn’t care.

I’d earned every opportunity in front of me. I wasn’t handing any of it over.

The Verdict on My Husband the Judge: GUILTY

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Chapter 7

I packed my stuff, picked up Pumpkin, and moved into Roosevelt a month early.

They gave me a teacher’s apartment. One bedroom, full kitchen, living room all to myself.

Faculty dining hall access.

They’d even bought Pumpkin toys and a cat tree before I arrived.

That became my home for the next three years.

My parents showed up a few times. Knocked on my door.

I never answered.

Sophomore year, I won a national science competition. Got into MIT early decision, full scholarship.

That same spring, Blair failed her entrance exams spectacularly.

Couldn’t get into Lincoln. Barely qualified for community college.

She pulled her usual routine–screaming at my parents, demanding they pay Lincoln’s “development donation” to

buy her a spot.

Because she was “tired of people rubbing my success in her face.”

Because if I had something, she was entitled to it too.

But my parents had finally woken up.

Even if they bankrupted themselves getting her into Lincoln now, then what? Were they supposed to buy her a college degree next? A career? Spend the rest of their lives artificially elevating her to my level?

They told her no.

And when she started her tantrum, they actually fought back

Screamed at her for the first time in forever. Called her spoiled, entitled, worthless.

She stormed out that night.

This time, they didn’t chase her.

She slunk back two days later on her own.

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