Godmother To His Son Then I Took His Kingdom Chapter 24
After the meeting, the lawyers drafted a plan quickly.
The Cabots would be required to fund a trust covering all of Leo’s living, medical, and educational expenses, to be managed by an independent guardian appointed by the court. The Whitmores would have no right to use Leo’s name to challenge Graham’s estate, and the Reyes Foundation would provide Leo with independent legal support if needed.
I would retain only visitation rights and emergency contact status.
The Cabots’ lawyer objected first.
“Evelyn once funded your entire college education, Ms. Reyes. These expenses are hardly a burden for you now.”
I looked at him, my voice flat.
“So the Cabot family believes that paying a poor student’s tuition twenty years ago gives them the right to hand that student both their child and their financial responsibilities today?”
He faltered.
Mrs. Whitmore immediately cut in. “Leo is Evelyn’s son. Of course the Cabots should be responsible.”
“That’s not what you were saying for the last eight years!” the Cabots’ lawyer snapped. “You told everyone Leo was the spitting image of Graham. You paraded him at every Whitmore event. Now that the DNA report is public, you want to wash your hands of him?”
“The person who forged the birth certificate was Evelyn!”
“And the people who covered for her were you!”
At last, in front of the judge, the two families tore into each other.
One waved around records of eight years of support payments. The other fired back with the details of Evelyn’s criminal conviction.
I sat between them and said nothing.
They had once joined forces to deceive me over a nonexistent Whitmore heir. Now, they were pointing fingers at each other over a responsibility neither of them wanted.
Finally, the judge rapped his gavel lightly on the table.
“That’s enough.”
The room fell silent.
After reviewing the DNA report, the guardianship file, and Evelyn’s criminal judgment, the judge adopted the plan submitted by the child advocate.
The Cabots would pay. An independent guardian would oversee Leo’s life. Without Leo’s consent and the advocate’s approval, neither the Whitmores nor the Cabots would be permitted to use him for media appearances or family events again.
Mrs. Whitmore’s face tightened. “And our challenge to Graham’s estate?”
“The will has been probated. Your side has presented no legal basis sufficient to overturn its validity.”
The judge closed the file.
“Petition denied.”
She whipped around, her glare fixed on me.
“You planned all of this from the beginning, didn’t you?”
I stood and straightened my coat.
“I didn’t plan anything.”
“I simply put the documents you created into the hands of the people who were supposed to see them.”
When I walked out of the courtroom, Leo was waiting at the far end of the hall with his advocate.
The moment he saw Mrs. Whitmore, he instinctively shrank behind the other woman.
Mrs. Whitmore stopped short.
Perhaps only then did she finally realize that the child she had called her grandson for eight years looked at her not with affection, but with fear.
Her mouth parted as if to speak.
But Leo looked away and walked toward me.
“Mara, can I call you?”
“You can.”
“Even if nothing’s wrong?”
I gently straightened his crooked collar.
“Especially when nothing’s wrong.”