Cal sat in court Monday morning and told himself that over and over as he watched as Ben was brought in to sit at the table with his lawyers.Wheeler didn’t look happy or confident.Cal wanted that to mean something.
He knew better.
They were behind Bo leaving.Had to be.The PI was gone too.Everyone back to Wisconsin.Thathadconnected to Wheeler, which connected to Dad.
But why?
No amount of brainstorming among the brothers and Sam had yielded any plausible results.So they were in the dark.There was only wait and see.
Fuck, he hated wait and see.
The judge called the court to order, and Cal settled in for a long, painful day of listening to people try to pretend his mother was somehownotthe victim in her ownmurdercase.
Yeah, maybe he should have skipped this like Aly had suggested.But he’d been too… something to sit it out.Especially when Jill had told them Glenda planned to go.There was just no way he’d be good for anything today that wasn’t this.
Wheeler, Ben’s lawyer, stood and addressed the court.“The defense would like to call our first witness.”There was a pause.“Benjamin Bennet.”
Cal felt his entire stomach justdrop.Like he’d been completely hollowed out, every last vital organ leaking out of him.
“Cal,” Landon hissed.“You said he wouldn’t testify.”
“It’s suicide,” Cal said, or thought he said.There was a ringing in his ears.“No lawyer worth their salt lets him onto the stand.It’s…” He watched as Dad was sworn in.
Chained up andstepping onto the stand.
Cal wanted to think this was a boon.A positive sign.This couldn’t possibly go well.In eight years of practicing law, he’d never once called an obviously guilty defendant to the stand.Particularly at this point in the trial.
But worry filled Cal.There was a plan here, connected to Bo.And he couldn’t fathom what the hell it would be.
Dad didn’t look smug sitting there.He lookedcontrite.That actor he’d been all those years to fool everyone around him.
Now he’d work to fool a jury.
“Mr.Bennet, a lot of things have been said about you over the past few weeks.How do you feel about the prosecution’s characterization of the father you’ve been?”
“I understand them,” Dad said.“I haven’t been… a perfect or even good man all of the time.I have certainly failed my sons.”
“What the fuck is this?”Landon demanded under his breath, but Cal didn’t have an answer for him.
He could only watch the proceedings, his mind desperately trying to find some rhyme or reason for what was happening.Even if the jury believed this fictional version of Benjamin Bennet, there was no evidence to support it.None.
“How would you characterize the altercation with your son Nate Bennet after your wife’s funeral?”
“A mistake.A deep, profound mistake.But…” Dad trailed off, sighed shakily.“I don’t want to… undercut my son’s feelings, or the way he remembers it.I understand why Nate has built it up in his head over the years.He ran away.It was so shocking to him that he ran away and never came back.I understand that.It was shocking to me too.I never meant…”
“Objection, Your Honor.This line of questioning is highly irregular,” Vanderbilt said.“And it’s going nowhere.”
“We got to ask the brothers their feelings on this altercation,” Wheeler responded to the judge.“Why not ask the alleged perpetrator what happened?”
The judge nodded.“Then let’s have him say what happened, not his feelings.”
The lawyer turned to Dad.“All right, Mr.Bennet.Describe the altercation with Nate asyousaw it.”
Dad inhaled deeply, letting that shake.He looked absolutely contrite.Haunted.“I snapped.I did.I can’t argue with that.I was… grief-stricken, hollowed out.”His voice shook.“Looking back, I know Nate was too, but in the moment, I was trying to hold it all together for my boys and he was whining about chores.”Dad shook his head.“Looking back, I can see that for what it was, but in the moment, I was hurting so much, trying so hard, I… I did shove him.It was wrong.I know that.I apologized.”Dad looked at the jury, and it almost looked like there were tears in his eyes.
Fuck.
“There’s no apologizing for losing my temper like that.So I understand why Nate has held on to that moment.But I do think Nate… and Samantha…” He faltered there a little bit.
