The Verdict on My Husband the Judge: GUILTY novel Chapter 66

When relationships are about to fundamentally change, people tend toward brutal honesty.

That’s when I discovered that Kieran had been deceiving me from our very first meeting.

As someone who was a year ahead of us at university, he’d known exactly who I was.

But during our arranged introduction, he’d pretended we were complete strangers.

Precisely because he knew me, he was fully aware that I’d recently ended a relationship with someone I’d loved desperately.

Kieran looked deeply uncomfortable discussing this revelation.

“I knew you two had been crazy about each other. Who would believe that you could instantly fall for someone like me–inferior to him in literally every way–right after such an intense breakup?”

I found myself mentally rewinding to the details of our first encounter.

Not long after graduation, my estranged father–whom I’d barely seen in years–informed me that marriage was a prerequisite for accessing my inheritance.

The whole thing struck me as laughably manipulative. He’d ignored my existence as a child, and now that I was an adult, he wanted to use my romantic life as leverage.

I looked at him with ice–cold contempt: “Then donate every penny to charity.”

After delivering that line, I walked out of the restaurant, completely ignoring his shocked expression.

But he refused to give up, continuing to orchestrate blind dates like some demented matchmaker.

Kieran was one of his candidates.

When he sat down, he didn’t lecture me or judge my attitude. Instead, he said with genuine sincerity:

“I’m really sorry, but I should be transparent–I’m actually here as a favor to someone else.”

The guy was refreshingly honest and unexpectedly funny, and he made me laugh for the first time in weeks.

We talked about completely random topics and discovered we’d attended the same university.

Since he was my senior, I felt an automatic sense of connection. Later, when I was fed up with all the family pressure, I impulsively asked him:

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The Verdict on My Hushad the Judge: GUILTY

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Chapter 7

“Want to marry me?”

Kieran was still charmingly naive back then. He looked stunned for a moment before responding:

“I’m probably not marriage material. My family background is completely ordinary, and my career isn’t exactly

stable.”

He systematically listed all his perceived flaws but never actually said he wasn’t interested.

So I said with the excitement of someone who’d discovered buried treasure: “I couldn’t care less about any of that.

Think it over.”

This was around the time I learned that my Dad’s health was declining rapidly.

When he honestly told me: “I wasn’t a good father, but I genuinely am your only family. I just want you to have a home,” I’d be lying if I said it didn’t move me.

After he passed away, I went through an absolutely devastating period. Back then, I desperately craved the security of family.

Thankfully, Kieran agreed to my unconventional proposal.

Actually, our relationship was genuinely sweet at first, until news of our marriage spread through our social circles.

Everyone assumed Caspian had dumped me, and since I couldn’t land an appropriate rebound, I’d settled for marrying some impoverished nobody.

Somehow this vicious gossip reached Kieran’s ears. Shortly after, he launched his startup and became increasingly consumed by work.

I always assumed he was bothered by my romantic history with someone else, while he constantly worried that I

was still hung up on my ex.

That I’d married him in a fit of spite.

Once we finally cleared up these fundamental misunderstandings, we both laughed with helpless irony.

He looked absolutely devastated: “But Aurora, I wasn’t always this emotionally unavailable.”

“Six months after our wedding, you got drunk one night and I overheard you on the phone with your friend. You said you still hadn’t managed to forget him.”

“I knew you thought you’d been impulsive and didn’t know how to face the reality of what you’d done.”

I was completely stunned. So he’d known about my conflicted feelings this entire time.

I smiled sadly. “It’s tragic that we didn’t clear this up back then. I kept trying desperately to get closer to you while

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Chapter 7

you were deliberately maintaining distance.”

“Guess we were just cosmically star–crossed.”

He laughed bitterly and drained his entire beer in one aggressive gulp.

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Chapter 8

Chapter 8