Among All The Stars I Found You Chapter 23
The defamation suit didn’t drag on for long.
Juliette’s post implying she was Mrs. Rhodes was still online.
The voice messages and photos from the alumni group were still there, too.
Her lawyer advised her to apologize publicly.
She refused.
Not until the very people who had once mocked me with her started questioning her in the group chat, one by one.
[You knew Selena was Preston’s wife, so why didn’t you say anything?]
[When you said she was the bridesmaid, were you doing that on purpose?]
[You hadn’t seen Leo in seven years, so why did you let everyone think you were the one by his side?]
Juliette left the group chat.
The next day, she deleted all her posts and released a public apology.
She admitted that the airport photo had been meant to mislead everyone.
She also admitted she had never dated Preston.
But she still tried to blame everything on “the pain of losing Patrick.”
I didn’t accept the apology.
In the end, the court ordered her to cease the infringement, issue a public clarification, and compensate me for my losses.
It wasn’t a lot of money.
And yet, for the first time, I felt like my name truly belonged to me.
A few months later, Juliette voluntarily withdrew her custody petition.
She knew that if she kept fighting, that abandonment note would only be brought up in court again and again.
Before she left New York, she called me.
“Selena, you won.”
“This isn’t a competition.”
“For me, it always was.”
Her voice was thick with tears.
“Ever since college, if Patrick looked at you for a second too long, I felt like you were trying to take him from me.”
“That’s why I told him you liked him.”
So even the words that had wounded me most deeply had just been another one of her lies, designed to push me away.
But now that I knew the truth, it didn’t matter anymore.
“Juliette, the things you lost weren’t taken by me.”
“They were things you never cherished in the first place.”
I hung up.
This time, we were well and truly finished.Â