Among All The Stars I Found You Chapter 21
I crouched in the doorway, holding that drawing, and cried for a long time.
Leo didn’t start calling me Mom again right away.
But the next morning, he pushed a glass of milk across the table toward me.
“The baby needs milk, too.”
His eyes were still swollen, but his voice was serious.
I nodded.
“Okay.”
Preston, sitting across from us, quietly let out a breath.
But he tensed up again almost immediately.
The first court hearing was that afternoon.
Juliette sat across from us, dressed plainly.
Her lawyer kept emphasizing that she was Leo’s biological mother.
When it was her turn to speak, she looked at Leo with tears in her eyes.
“Mommy was too young back then.”
“I was just scared. I didn’t really mean that I didn’t want you.”
Leo clutched my hand tightly.
The judge asked her, “After you left, did you ever come back to visit the child?”
Juliette hesitated.
“No.”
“Did you ever pay child support?”
“No.”
“In the past seven years, did you know the child’s whereabouts?”
Her lips moved.
“I knew he was with the Rhodes family.”
“If you knew that, why didn’t you come forward?”
Juliette had no answer.
She suddenly turned to Preston.
“Because I thought Patrick was dead!”
The moment the words left her mouth, even she froze.
At last, she had spoken the truest reason.
She didn’t want a child who couldn’t bring her any advantage.
It wasn’t until she learned the Rhodes heir was still alive that she remembered she was Leo’s mother.
Preston’s mother closed her eyes.
Leo’s hand was trembling in mine.
I pulled him into my arms, shielding him from Juliette’s sight.
That day, the court denied her request for immediate custody.
The real proceedings would continue.
But Juliette had already destroyed her strongest argument with her own hands.Â