Courtroom

The courtroom felt like a arena of hostility, tensions crackling thick in the air. On one side sat Chloe and her vernomous family legal team, radiating icy disdain. Opposite them, the regal elderly woman named Granny Daphne held court imperiously, clearly not one to be trifled with.

And in the middle, Lily sat sandwiched between James and the attorney he'd hired to represent them - looking every bit the proverbial fish out of water.

"Your Honor, this entire situation is a despicable sham concocted by that girl and my grandson," Granny Daphne declared in ringing tones, taking the floor first. "But make no mistake, their marriage vows were very much legally binding."

She turned to fix Lily with a withering look. "Despite Miss Walker's...compromised state at the time, I can vouch that my grandson acted with full capacities. He upheld the letter of the law to a conditional wife, even under suspect circumstances."

Lily felt herself shrink slightly in her seat as murmurs rippled through the courtroom gallery. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see flashes from camera phones belonging to what looked like tabloid reporters, no doubt lapping up every sordid detail.

James gave her hand a reassuring squeeze under the table. "Eyes front, my dear. Let's give them a show, shall we?"

Nodding faintly, Lily lifted her chin as the Adams family attorney rose, looking like a snake preparing to strike.

"Your Honor, surely you can see the absurdity of these claims," the lawyer sneered, gesturing toward James and Lily as if they were something unpleasant he'd stepped in. "That this is nothing more than a publicity stunt conducted by a drunk, opportunistic woman and her put-upon, embarrassed husband!"

Heckling shouts echoed through the gallery as he continued his fiery denunciation. "Even deigning to honor such contemptible circumstances with formal court proceedings is frankly degrading to this institution."

"Burn, witch!" came a sudden shout from the back, making everyone's heads whip around. Because shambling through the courtroom entrance, disheveled and red-faced, was none other than Ryan Collins.

Lily felt her stomach drop clear out as her cheating ex-fiance locked eyes with her. There was a triumphant gleam in his bleary gaze, like a hunter who'd finally sighted his prey.

"Ladies and gentlemen of this upstanding court!" Ryan called out, words already devolving into a slur. "That hussy you see sittin' up there pretendin' at being a wife? She's nothin' more than a two-bit sl*t!"

Affronted gasps broke out amid the spectators as Ryan staggered ever closer to the front, leering at Lily with naked resentment in his eyes.

"Your Honor, please get this drunken fool out of my courtroom before I have him held in contempt," the Adams lawyer spat, but Ryan barreled on unchecked.

"We were just a week away from marriage when this little schemer went off and pulled her self-destructive stunt," he seethed, stabbing an accusing finger at Lily. "I tried to reign her in after I made one little mistake, but no - marrying a billionaire she trapped into bed was more important to her than me!"

With every toxically misogynistic phrase Ryan spewed, Lily felt herself shrinking further into her seat like a turtle withdrawing into its shell. How had this all spiraled so unimaginably out of control in just a matter of days? One minute she was a promising young professional - the next she was international tabloid fodder being raked across the coals.

A calloused hand slipped over hers under the table, giving it a firm, grounding squeeze. Her head whipped around to find James' hazel eyes boring into her with an intensity that made her breath catch.

"Don't you dare let his deranged ramblings get to you," he murmured in a tone that brooked no argument. "This pathetic excuse for a man has no power over you - not anymore."

He leaned in closer until she could feel the warmth of his lips against her ear. "Just watch, and learn exactly what happens when someone tries to shame my wife..."

James was on his feet in an instant, his authoritative presence seeming to amplify and command the room as all eyes turned toward him.

"Enough of this embarrassing display," he announced in clarion, disgusted tones. "I'll thank you to cease defaming my wife in such vulgar, derogatory terms before I put this entire courtroom on notice for your vile transgressions."

Ryan sputtered indignantly, face going beet red. "Your WIFE? You can't be serious, Watson, this hot mess isn't fit to be-"

In two long strides, James crossed the space between them and seized Ryan by the lapels, cutting off the rest of his sentence by lifting him clear off the ground with dizzying ease - drawing a startled gasp from the gallery.

"No, YOU listen to ME very carefully," he growled in a rumble so low and deadly it seemed to reverberate through Lily's very core. "You'll show my wife the respect she deserves at all times from this point forward, or so help me god-"

He slammed Ryan against the wall, pinning him there with an iron grip. Their faces were mere incheapart as James uttered his next words in a tone of steely, vicious calm.

"I will make you regret the day you ever disrespected the woman carrying my name."

With that, he brusquely discarded Ryan like a piece of crumpled paper, allowing the man to cower in a miserable heap on the floor as he stalked back to his seat.

Lily stared at her husband in a mixture of awe and incredulous disbelief at what she'd just witnessed. This wasn't the first time James Watson had left her utterly breathless...but she had a feeling it wouldn't be the last either. what she felt was knew and she somehow loved it

Throughout it all, the no-nonsense judge looked completely nonplussed by the proceedings - as if dramatic, high society outbursts like these were par for the course.

"Now that the theatrics are out of everyone's system," he said in a bland tone, gesturing for everyone to retake their seats, "I believe we have ample evidence that the Watson marriage in question is indeed legally binding, regardless of the...unorthodox circumstances."

Chloe and her family appeared ready to detonate a cursed blood vessel at any moment hearing this. But when the stoic judge turned to Lily with an arched eyebrow, she instinctively straightened in her seat under his scrutinizing gaze.

"Mrs. Watson, you understand that in light of these findings, anything said or decided here today extends the full accountabilities of legal wifehood in perpetuity?"

She felt James discreetly weave their fingers together under the table, squeezing gently in tacit reassurance. A soft smile tugged at the corners of Lily's mouth as she met the judge's gravely serious expression.

"I do, Your Honor," she replied in a clear, confident tone. "I understand completely."

As finality rang through the courtroom in those words, Lily felt herself straightening even taller, a renewed sense of self-possession flooding through her veins.

Whatever madness the name "Watson" had brought into her life so far...she knew now without a shadow of a doubt that she wouldn't have it any other way.

She was all in on this unconventional marriage, no matter how many battles high society tried throwing their way.