Third Person
“Ladies and gentlemen, court will recess for a fifteen-minute break!” Judge Trainor announced as soon as Jeffrey released Annika from the stand. Jeffrey was remanded into custody until the break was over.
Annika went back over to Hunter and let out the breath she had been holding ever since Jeffrey had started to question her. Leon stood from his seat and brought her into his embrace for some moral and emotional support.
“Anni, let’s go into the conference room really quick,” Hunter suggested and nudged her and Leon to follow him. They both nodded without any words. Once they were behind closed doors, they were left without about ten minutes before they needed to get back.
“What’s wrong?” Leon asked before Annika could.
“Nothing, I just didn’t want to discuss our next course of action in front of that loser,” Hunter answered and rotated his neck to relieve himself of some of the kinks that had formed from the stress.
“Okay. Mind if I ask a question then?”
“Go ahead.”
“Since when was the Doc legally adopted?” Leon questioned with a quirk of his eyebrow.
“Oh, that?” Annika smirked and gave a knowing gaze to Hunter. “Are you going to explain, or shall I?”
“You can explain, Anni. It was your idea.” Leon looked over at Annika quizzically.
“Long story short, I knew that once my identity came to light, that Jeffrey would use his manipulative ways to paint me as the bad buy. It’s what he does. So, I called Kenzie’s dad and told him my concerns. Thankfully, he already had the adoption papers set aside in case one day my identity was brought into question.”
“Wait, so the Hillers actually adopted you?”
“Yup. We just never told anyone.”
“So, those papers you showed the judge?” Leon looked over at Hunter.
“100 percent legitimate. Anni’s divorce from her family isn’t an act. She really did divorce them out of rebellion. The only fib she told was the caveat tidbit about her Grandma and Aunt. What we explained in there is the truth. The lie was the whole thing about Anni’s MeeMaw and Aunt raising her when she was younger.”
“Why lie about that growing up then?”
“Because I needed people to believe that I was indeed poor. If I told people that I divorced my family at fourteen and was then adopted by the Hillers who was also a well-known affluent family, people would misjudge me. I wanted to start from the bottom because I wanted to be a normal teenager,” Annika explained. Leon gave her another look of confusion, not understanding her logic. “I know it doesn’t make sense now, but it made sense back then.” Leon was about to respond when there was a knock on the door.
“Hey, you guys, time to come back,” Micky said as she poked her head in. The others nodded and followed her back to the courtroom. As soon as they took their seats, the Judge came back in, and court resumed.
“Counselor Malloy, your next witness.”
“Yes, Your Honor. I would like to call Jeffrey Hollands to the stand,” Hunter announced. Jeffrey shot daggers at Hunter before making his way to the stand. The bailiff had him swear under oath, and then Hunter began his questioning. Because Jeffrey was representing himself, he would have to toggle between answering Hunter while also maintaining his role as his attorney to make sure Hunter didn’t step out of line. The problem was that Jeffrey wasn’t well-versed in family law and the public’s opinion was against him. “Mr. Hollands, since we are already aware of the reasons we are here today, would you care to explain your side of the story?”
“I plead the fifth.”
“Very well,” Hunter replied and turned to face Annika. Hunter furrowed his brows not understanding what Jeffrey was trying to do. Refusing to answer was his right; however, it didn’t paint a good picture for him.
“What is Hollands doing?” Leon asked Micky.
“I don’t know. He just blew his only chance to tell his side of the story.”
“Is that stupid or smart?”
“I don’t know,” Micky scrunched her face and tilted her head in bewilderment.
“Mr. Hollands, why did you cheat on your marriage?” Hunter asked point blank.
“I thought I had fallen out of love with Annika.”
“You thought? Mr. Hollands, you either loved your wife or you didn’t. Which was it?”
“Objection. Badgering.”
“Sustained,” Judge Trainor ruled.
“I’ll withdraw the question. Mr. Hollands, if you felt that you no longer loved your wife, why not just get a divorce in the very beginning? Why cheat?”
“I didn’t intend to keep up the affair.”
“But yet, you did. For well over a year in fact. Did you not feel any guilt betraying your wife?”
“Not in the beginning.” Jeffrey’s blatant honesty caused some commotion within the courtroom, mostly from Annika’s family members. Judge Trainor was quick to call order, and silence ensued once again.
“When did you start to feel guilty?”
“When I saw that my wife started to become distant with me.”
“Distant with you? Mr. Hollands, are you not the one that walked out of the home that you shared with your wife with your own two feet?”
“Objection, counselor is testifying,” Jeffrey sneered.
“Sustained. The jury will disregard.”
“No, they won’t,” Matthaeus mumbled.
“Let me rephrase the question, then. Mr. Hollands, what did Ms. Silverton do when she suspected your extra-marital affairs?”
“She made me sleep in the guest room.”
“Is that all?”
“Objection! Relevance?”
“You can’t be serious,” Hunter grumbled. “Your Honor, the question is regarding the series of events that led my client to file for divorce!”
“Overruled. Counselor Hollands, you will answer the questions regarding the series of events,” Judge Trainor commanded. Jeffrey bit his bottom lip in frustration.
“Fine. She kicked me out of the house.”
“Are you saying my client forcibly removed you from the premises?”
“Yes. She told me to leave.”
“And did you?”
“I didn’t have a choice.”
“Really?” Hunter asked and then used his index finger to point at Jeffrey as he backtracked to the table. “Your Honor, I would like to enter into evidence exhibit D.” Hunter provided a DVD to the bailiff, and it was played for the entire courtroom to see. Jeffrey’s eyes widened when he saw what was on the DVD. “Mr. Hollands, is this not you walking out of the penthouse with your own two feet, with a smile on your face?” Jeffrey’s face paled when he saw the surveillance footage of him walking out of the penthouse the night that Annika told him to leave.
“I … I … That … That’s not …”
“Mr. Hollands, I’m sure that as the former D.A. of our fine city, you are well aware that perjury is a crime. Do you wish to revise your answer?” Hunter chided him. Jeffery subconsciously looked over at Annika who had a smirk on her face. He knew that that were cameras in the penthouse and the surrounding hallways, but he didn’t expect her to use this against him. “Mr. Hollands, I asked if you would like to revise your statement?”
“I … I’m sorry. I admit, that after Annika told me to leave, I left on my accord. However, she told me to leave. What was I supposed to do? Stay and bother her? What you do if you were in my position counselor?” Jeffery snapped back at Hunter.
“I’m not the one on trial here, Mr. Hollands.”
“I think any decent husband would do as his wife says,” Jeffery stated confidently as he eyed several of the male species that were seated within the gallery. Although he felt that most men in his shoes would have done the same thing, a sizable number of them were hollering at their T.V. for his inhumane response. Mostly because his response had women screaming at their husbands and boyfriends before they even had t he chance to retort against what Jeffery claimed. Jeffery practically brought down the entire male race with him, and he didn’t even have to actually try that hard.
[This mother fucker just screwed all of us over!]
[WOW! Just freaking great! My wife just told me to sleep on the couch if I even dare agree with what this douchebag said!]
[Why is dragging all of us to hell with him!]
[I would never betray my marriage the way we did! If I didn’t want my wife anymore, I’d do both of us a favor and file for divorce! This Hollands fellow is a disgrace to men!]
[Don’t include us with your demise you sorry piece of s**t!]
Men everywhere were being hounded by the women in their families, while others were single and were defending themselves against Jeffrey’s claims that all men were alike.
“You claim that you were just doing your wife what she asked of you. Where did you go after you left the penthouse?” Hunter asked, secretly hoping deep down that Jeffrey would attempt to perjure himself again. Unfortunately, for him, Jeffrey didn’t take the bait.
“I went to the hotel I’m currently staying at and called Sadie over.”
“You’re admitting to calling over your mistress?” Hunter asked to make sure that he wasn’t hallucinating.
“Yes. Because at the time, I thought I didn’t want to be with Annika anymore. I thought that I wanted to be with Sadie.”
“THOUGHT!?” Sadie hollered from her seat. “YOU DID WANT TO BE WITH ME! YOU EVEN TOLD ME HOW HAPPY YOU WERE YOU DIDN’T HAVE TO SPEND ANOTHER SECOND WITH THAT b***h!” Sadie’s outburst fueled Annika’s hatred toward Jeffrey while simultaneously ruining his image even more. Jeffrey never planned to admit what he had to Sadie at that time, but Sadie just divulged their private conversation to the entire courtroom.
“MS. GALLOWAY! THIS IS THE LAST TIME I WILL TELL YOU TO SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP!” Judge Trainor slammed his gavel down onto the podium. He already wasn’t her biggest fan, but her continuous eruptions were getting on his last nerves. While Judge Trainor was trying to bring order to the courtroom, Kenzie was receiving a text message.
Uncle Matt: That woman is going to get arraigned before she even stands trial.
Kenzie smirked at the message. She held her breath and wished upon a star that would happen because that save so much time and money for everyone. But she knew deep down that it wouldn’t be that simple. If getting rid of Sadie Galloway was a cakewalk in the park, then Annika and Hunter wouldn’t be going through all of this.
As her thoughts were running wild with all of the possibilities that could have happened if Sadie just didn’t exist, Kenzie’s phone vibrated once more in her hands. Thinking that it was Uncle Matt again, she quickly opened the message. But what surprised her was that it was the lab that she had hired to run the DNA of Sadie against her father under Annika’s instructions. Given that they had both dismissed the father-daughter duo as their patients respectively, Hunter was able to convince Leon’s attorney to get a paternity test after they shared the results of their investigations that Sadie’s mother was the mastermind behind defrauding Leon during his divorce against Sadie. If she was able to come up with such an elaborate scheme against Leon, then it would be so farfetched to assume that she has a history of playing dirty to get what she wanted.
After reading over the results, Kenzie’s heart leaped into her throat, and immediately forwarded the results to Leon. When his phone vibrated in his pocket, Leon furrowed his brows, but immediately caught sight of Kenzie signaling him with her phone to let him know that she was the one texting him. He read the contents of the message, and a smile of victory could be seen taking over his face. He nodded his appreciation to Kenzie and walked out of the gallery to let his team of attorneys know that they had a new secret weapon to use against Mrs. Galloway when it was her turn to take the stand.
Leon would not let the opportunity pass him by to get back at the conniving mother-daughter team of scam artists that robbed him of tens of millions of dollars for their personal greed.
Through this entire exchange, Judge Trainor got the room back in order, and Hunter continued his cross-examination of Jeffrey who was now sweating bullets all thanks to Sadie.
“Well, thanks to Ms. Galloway’s outburst just now, it appears that you have additional explaining to do, Mr. Hollands. Would you care to explain to the court what Ms. Galloway was insinuating just now?”
“She’s insane. Don’t listen to her antics. I only told her those things in the heat of the moment. I never meant any of it. Annika, honey, you have to believe me!” Jeffrey addressed her directly.
“Mr. Hollands, need I remind you that you are currently under oath? You are also not permitted to speak to my client directly!” Hunter lectured in annoyance. “Whatever you say to my client can be used against you.”
“Against me!? Are you joking me right now, Hunter Malloy? You’re on her payroll. Of course, you’re going to be on her side. I made a mistake! I admit that. Why are you and she wasting everyone’s time over something so trivial?!” Jeffrey’s downplay of his actions pissed off everyone in the courtroom, including Judge Trainor. The man has almost fifty years of marriage under his belt, and he never betrayed his wife physically, or emotionally. His eyes never wandered in the slightest, and he couldn’t stand pretentious men like Jeffrey Hollands to excuse something as heinous as infidelity into something small.
“Counselor Hollands, I suggest you keep your commentary to yourself, or I will have no choice but to hold you in contempt!” Trainor exclaimed. “Trivial!? You call betraying your marital vows trivial? You disgust me, Counselor, and it sickens me to have to stare at your face for the next several days while we get to the bottom of the rest of your crimes. Too bad that infidelity isn’t a crime, otherwise I would have had you detained the moment this case file landed on my desk. Before you question Counselor Malloy’s and his client’s character, I suggest you take a hard look in the mirror and reflect on yourself and your actions. Lest I remind you that you’re not only here for your philandering ways, but for other major infractions.” Jeffrey was gobsmacked that the Judge called him out and chastised him that way, while everyone else in the courtroom was silently applauding him. Those at home were screaming for joy. Though it was rare for a judge to get involved in such matters, it wasn’t completely unheard of. “Counselor Malloy, do you have any further questions for the defendant?”
“No. Your honor. I do not.”
“Counselor Hollands, step down and take a seat. Since there’s no way you can cross-examine yourself, we will have Counselor Malloy call his next witness.”
“Thank you, Your Honor. I would like to call Sadie Galloway to the stand.”
