HARRY STYLES
"Mr. Wang," Allison's lawyer greets him with a sour note in her voice, passing us to sit on her side of the courtroom with Allison.
"Miss. Canter," Mr. Wang's tone, on the other hand, is neutral because he's better than her and therefore seemingly feels no animosity. I can't imagine this woman is anywhere on his list of things to worry about.
"How are you feeling?" Mr. Wang turns to me, speaking more quietly for just the two of us to hear.
"Good," I answer truthfully. "I'm not worried at all."
"That's what I like to hear," he nods.
We don't have a lot of free time before we're asked to stand before the judge once again. Despite this only being my second time in court, I already feel like a professional and like I could come here for just about any reason now. That's not something I'll be bragging about, but I like doing things for the first time. It's important for my self-esteem to be well-versed.
"Miss. Franklin, Mr. Styles," the judge addresses us both, holding the piece of paper that I'm sure contains the result of our battle for Jane. "After careful consideration of Mrs. Roberts' report of Jane spending time in both residences, I will be denying Miss. Franklin's request for sole custody and granting Mr. Styles' request that the custody be shared weekly as verbally agreed prior to this case. Holidays and special occasions will be decided between the two of you. Are there any questions?"
I'm smiling and I don't feel guilty to be doing so in the slightest. I might have something to feel sorry for if I had requested full custody, but I didn't. I requested what was fair and that's exactly what I got. Allison has no reason to bitch about it, either. Our arrangement was working perfectly fine in both our favors before she decided to let her bitterness make decisions on her behalf.
"Because it's the start of a new week and Miss. Franklin has had sole custody of the child until this point, I am ordering the custody be turned over to Mr. Styles if he is prepared to take it."
"I'm prepared, your honor," I nod.
"Fine," the judge nods. "Case dismissed."
"What did I tell ya?" Mr. Wang smirks as we stand together.
"Thank you, Mr. Wang," I shake his hand. "I appreciate your time and effort so much."
"Don't mention it," he winks and slaps the side of my arm. "Take care, Chef. Let me know about those reservations in January."
"Will do," I grab my coat from my chair to slip my arms through as he takes off to leave the room. He has another case in another room in ten minutes.
As for me, I look over at Allison while her lawyer hugs her and wait for them to finish their conversation. I'm sure I'm the last person she wants to speak to right now, but I need to make arrangements to pick Jane up and figure out how the rest of this week is going to go. We also need to discuss Christmas because I will not go the entire holiday without seeing my daughter and I wouldn't expect that for Allison either.
"Well, I'm sure you're ecstatic," she says as we meet in the middle of the room.
"Yeah, because now we both get time with Jane just like before," I remind her. "For me, this was never about keeping her from you, Al. This was about making sure we both get to see her an equal amount."
Rather than denying her spiteful plan against me, she folds her arm and looks down at the floor between us. "You shouldn't have lied to me, Harry. You should have told me when I went over to your apartment and made a complete fucking fool of myself, begging for you to take me back when you already moved on with the nanny-and I told you that same night that I didn't feel comfortable with how attached Jane was to her. I had no idea she was also taking my place next to you."
