Pregnant and Abandoned: My Billionaire Ex Regretted Leaving When the Lawsuit Revealed the Truth

The courtroom doors swung shut behind the last juror, sealing the twelve strangers inside the deliberation room. The heavy wooden thud echoed like a gavel strike.

Sarah exhaled, a shaky breath that rattled in her chest. The adrenaline that had sustained her during Julian's cross-examination evaporated, leaving cold, trembling exhaustion in its wake.

"Now," Marcus whispered, capping his pen with a sharp click, "we wait."

Across the aisle, Julian sat alone. His expensive defense team was furiously whispering, shuffling papers, likely damage control for the PR nightmare of the audio recording. Julian wasn’t whispering. He was staring at the wall, his jaw tiered so tight the tendons strained against his skin.

He pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed his forehead. For the first time in ten years, Sarah saw him sweat.

"How long?" Sarah asked, her voice barely audible.

"Days. Maybe a week," Marcus said gently. "Complex tort cases take time."

Time. Sarah looked down at her scuffed shoes. She didn't have days. Her landlord had given her a final notice this morning. The credit card she used for the baby’s formula was maxed out.

If the jury deadlocked, or worse, if Julian bought them off like he bought everything else, she wouldn't just be back at square one. She would be buried under legal fees she could never repay. Julian would countersue for defamation. He would take the baby. She squeezed her eyes shut, fighting the nausea rolling in her gut.

"All rise!"

Sarah insulted nearly jumped out of her skin. She blinked. The clock on the wall had only moved forty minutes.

"They're back?" Sarah gripped Marcus's sleeve. "Already?"

Marcus frowned, his shark-like eyes narrowing. "A quick verdict usually means... well, it's decisive. One way or the other."

Julian stood up, smoothing his jacket. He leaned over the aisle, his voice a low, venomous hiss. "Forty minutes, Sarah. They barely sat down. They know a shakedown when they see one."

Sarah didn't respond. She watched the jurors file back in. They didn't look at Julian. They kept their eyes fixed on the floor, on their papers, on anything but the defendant.

"You may be seated," Judge Holloway commanded.

The foreman, a mechanic with grease still stained under his fingernails, stood up. He held a single sheet of paper. His hands were shaking.

"Has the jury reached a verdict?" the Judge asked.

"We have, Your Honor."

Sarah’s heart hammered against her ribs like a trapped bird. This was it. Total ruin or salvation.

"In the matter of Jenkins v. Blackwood Pharmaceutics and Julian Blackwood," the foreman read, his voice gaining strength.

"On the count of Gross Negligence... we the jury find the defendant... Liable."

A gasp rippled through the gallery. Julian stiffened.

"On the count of Fraudulent Concealment... we find the defendant... Liable."

Julian half-rose from his chair. "This is absurd!"

"Sit down, Mr. Blackwood!" the bailiff barked.

"On the count of Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress..." The foreman looked directly at Sarah then. A look of profound pity. "We find the defendant Liable."

"On all counts," the Judge confirmed, looking over his spectacles at a pale, trembling Julian. "The jury finds for the Plaintiff."

Marcus let out a breath he seemed to have been holding for years. He put a hand on Sarah’s shoulder. "We got him, Sarah. We really got him."

But the foreman wasn't finished. He cleared his throat, glancing at a second piece of paper in his hand.

" regarding the matter of damages," the foreman continued, his voice echoing in the stunned silence. "Due to the malicious nature of the defendant's conduct... we have yet to read the punitive award."

Julian slumped back into his chair, looking small, defeated, and utterly terrified.