The courtroom was filled with a distant smell of waxed wood and nervousness stretched to its limit. Alice sat rigid in the second row, fingers bunched in her lap, every beat of her heart thumping against her ribs like a warning drum. She hadn't intended to be here—in this manner, at least.
As Sophie was discharged from the hospital, all Alice wanted to do was return home, help Cole tuck his daughter into bed, and live the lie as if the world outside their fragile bubble did not exist.
But Eliana had other plans.
The court summons came swiftly, dropped on her like a malevolent afterthought, and now Alice sat in a family courtroom filled with clinical fluorescent lighting and eyes that seemed to slice her into ribbons.
Sophie sat beside Cole on the opposite side of the bench, her little legs bobbing nervously. Alice wished she could sit beside her, hold her hand, but the lawyers had arranged everyone for a purpose. And her purpose, it seemed, was going to be tested.
"Mrs. Alice Blake," the bailiff's voice boomed across the room like a sentence.
Her belly wobbled. The title wasn't actual, not on paper, anyway. And yet, the way it was said was heavier than her name.
Alice rose deliberately, smoothing her skirt with trembling hands. She could feel Cole's gaze upon her, firm, stabilizing, but they couldn't drive away the seething terror creeping into her breast. As she reached the witness stand, the wooden seat chilled colder than stone.
Raise your right hand," the bailiff ordered. She raised it, swearing to tell the truth, even as she questioned privately which truth she was to speak of the practiced one, or the slowly emerging from behind the shield of her shattered heart.
Eliana's lawyer, a slick-haired individual with a too-widely-to-be-friendly smile, rose and approached her. "Mrs. Blake," he corrected, adding the title, "you indicate that you're Sophie Kingston's stepmother. That is correct?"
Alice's throat closed. "I.yes. I adore Sophie."
"But you are not lawfully married to Dr. Cole Kingston, are you?
The space narrowed. Cole's fist curled and uncurled, his hand clenched on his knee as if he wished to intervene, but couldn't.
"No," Alice breathed.
"So then, by your own testimony, you are not Sophie's mother. You have no rights, no legal status, no claim upon her. Isn't that correct?
The words cut deeper than they should have. 'Not Sophie's mother'. Alice's gaze moved involuntarily to the small girl on the bench, whose eyes were filled with worry, silently pleading Alice not to vanish beneath the weight of those words.
"I may not have given birth to her," Alice said, her voice snapping into silence she did not realize she had at that point in time "but I love her. And she loves me."
The lawyer sneered, turning to the judge. "Love is not a legal status, Your Honour."
The gavel fell softly, calling for silence. Alice's heart pounded louder than any gavel.
"Explain, Mrs. Blake," the attorney went on, striding around the room in a circle like a predator stalking its prey. "Aren't your entire relationship with Dr. Kingston really just a… performance? A temporary arrangement to give Sophie the illusion that she has a family?"
They hung in the air.
Alice hesitated. This was it. The sharp edge of the truth. Her throat ached with tears held back. She could lie, preserve the facade, keep Sophie safe. Or she could destroy it all, shatter all the things they'd built, real and imagined.
"I…" she began, her voice shaking.
Cole moved to step forward, his attorney already rising half out of his chair, but Alice raised a hand a little, stopping them. She needed to say this on her own.
"I did not come into Sophie's world to replace anyone," she breathed, her own eyes filling with tears. "I came in because she needed someone to be there. And if I'm not her birth mother, if I never will be, then that may not change. But, I have been here with her in this short moment. In her nightmares, her fever, her laughter, and her dreams. And if that's an act, then it's the one I've ever wanted to keep playing."
A chill ran through the courtroom. Even the judge leaned back on his chair, as if weighing the coarseness of the truth of what she had said.
But before anyone else could speak, another voice broke through the silence.
"Enough."
The single word pierced the chamber, authoritative and biting. Alice's heart stopped as she turned and saw her.
Cole's mother.
Dramatic in a dark blue business suit, silver hair pulled back, she stood tall in the courtroom as if she owned it. Alice had seen pictures of her in the magazines, society spreads, charity functions; but alive, there was nothing soft or charitable about her. Her eyes flashed over Alice first, cold and assessing, before lighting on her son.
The bailiff commanded silence but she did not heed and continued.
"Cole," she said, her voice filled with rebuke and dismay. "What have you done?"
Cole's entire body stiffened, the facade of control fumbling for a moment. Alice had never seen him so tiny, not even in the hospital when Sophie was sick.
"Mother," he said softly, although his voice carried the burden of years of smoldering rage. "Now is not the time." he breathed
"Now is exactly the time," she countered, stepping forward before the bailiff restrained her.
"I warned you, didn't I? That your spontaneity, your reckless actions, would ruin Sophie's balance. And look where we are. A courtroom. A mockery of a marriage or whatever this is. A child caught in the middle."
Alice shrank at the words, which hit her like open hands. Sham. That was what she was. An imitation wife, a sham mother.
Before she could slide further into herself, Cole's voice rang out, louder this time.
"Don't speak to her like that."
The courtroom was frozen, each breath suspended. Cole stood up from his chair, his massive figure filling the room. His eyes locked on his mother, unfaltering.
"Alice has mothered Sophie more than anyone has," he said, his voice hard but aching with emotion. "Including you. She's been there in ways no one else has. Don't you ever take that away from her."
The announcement rocked Alice to her core. Her breathing suspended, her hands trembling in her lap. He was not performing now, there was no trace of performance in his voice.
The lawyer smiled again, watching divisions grow deeper. "You're saying this entire arrangement was put on by you?"
Cole's face tightened, his eyes having a brief glance at Alice's. For a beat, the world outside of them dissolved. The kiss they didn't speak of. The way she had become his core. The truth he couldn't keep hidden any longer.
No, he said finally, his tone resolute. "I'm saying I love her. And that is not a lie."
Gasps swept through the courtroom. Alice's reality changed, her heart skidding in her chest. Love. He said it in court, before his mother, before Eliana, before the judge.
"Order in this court, Silence" the judge began to rap the gavel hastily to command everyone's attention.
But love would not change contracts or erase courtroom danger. Alice knew that. And the terror of believing and losing simultaneously almost shattered her.
The judge raised a hand. "We will recess. Thirty minutes."
The gavel came down, but its sound could not drown out the fact that now hung suspended between them, as hot as a flame.
---
Outside in the corridor, Alice leaned back against the cold marble wall, trying to calm her breath. Cole found her there, his shadow falling far behind her.
"You shouldn't have said it like that," she breathed softly, her words quivering. "Not here. Not like this."
"I meant every word," he answered factually.
She shook her head, brushing away tears. "Cole, this isn't about us. It's about Sophie. Protecting her. And your mother, Eliana, will twist everything. I'm not in competition with ghosts or blood or the world you come from."
He stepped forward, his hand brushing against hers, shy but certain. "You don't need to. You're already what Sophie and I need.".
Her heart shattered at the sincerity in his voice, but fear edged in tighter. "I was going to be a stand-in, Cole. A part. Not… not this."
And yet even as she said it, she knew that the difference between pretend and real had blurred so far behind her it was lost. And the memory of their kiss in Sophie's hospital room seared through her, reminding her of all that she was trying to push away.
He tilted his head, looking at her with that surgeon's precision but with eyes kinder than she'd ever seen. "Maybe standing put you right where you were meant to be."
Her breath was suspended, trapped between the gravity of his tone and the approach of the sound of hurrying footsteps. Cole's mom came back once again, her face unreadable, her tone gentle but sharp.
"Alice," she told her, her gaze narrowing, "do you honestly believe you belong in my son's life? Sophie's? Because if you're fooling yourself, now's the time to go. Before you shatter them both."
The hall went quiet. Alice's heart thudded. The courtroom doors still lingered behind them, ready to pull them all in once more. And for the very first time, Alice realized that the real trial wasn't in the judge's court, but here, in the fragile, scary place between their hearts and hers.
The edge of us.
And one calculation error would send them all tumbling.