Among All The Stars I Found You Chapter 18
Someone in the crowd recognized the handwriting on the note.
The reporters’ questions changed direction at once.
“Miss Juliette, did you really abandon your own child?”
“You were gone for seven years. Why come back now?”
“Were you intentionally misleading people in the Facebook group when you implied you were Mrs. Rhodes?”
Juliette took a stumbling step back.
“That note is a fake.”
She said it too quickly.
Before I could even respond, she rushed to add, “All I meant was for Selena to take care of Leo temporarily. I never told her to give the child away.”
The air went still.
She had just claimed the note was fake.
In the next breath, she admitted she had left instructions after all.
Preston looked at her, his eyes completely devoid of warmth.
“Go on.”
Only then did Juliette realize her mistake.
“No, that’s not what I meant…”
The more she tried to explain, the more tangled her words became.
Finally, she just pointed at me.
“Selena’s the liar!”
“She took Leo to the Rhodes family, claimed she was his biological mother, and took your family’s money!”
I didn’t deny it.
“Yes.”
All the reporters turned back to me.
I heard my own voice, perfectly calm.
“I lied.”
“My mother was waiting for surgery, and Leo was only three months old. I couldn’t raise him on my own, and I couldn’t afford the medical bills.”
“At first, all I wanted was child support for Leo.”
“Every lie I told after that, I confessed to my husband.”
Juliette let out a cold laugh.
“So in the end, it was always about the money, wasn’t it?”
“If she only cared about money, she would have taken it and left seven years ago.”
Preston’s mother emerged from the building.
In her hand was the paternity report from all those years ago.
“After the Rhodes family investigated and learned the truth, we were the ones who asked her to stay.”
“And my son was the one who asked to marry her.”
For the first time, in front of everyone, she took my hand.
“Selena has never been anyone’s stand-in.”
“She is the only Mrs. Rhodes our family recognizes.”
The last trace of color drained from Juliette’s face.Â