“You cannot be serious right now?” I attempted to maintain my composure, but was boiling inside. I’d been humiliated in court, all because my client failed to convey some very pertinent information to me. At present, I stared down at Richard Crawford as he sat across my desk with a contrite look on his face.
“Richard, what is the number one thing I told you when first met?”
“Uh, how good you were?” He attempted humor in his southern drawl.
I wasn’t buying it. “No. One of the first things I told you was that, as your attorney, I needed complete honesty from you, right?”
“Yeah, about th—”
“I made it very clear that you can lie to your soon-to-be-ex-wife, you can lie to the guy who cuts your hair, hell, you could even lie to your accountant. I mean, I wouldn’t advise that. But you don’teverlie to me.” I pointed at my chest as I stood leaning over my desk. I was much too worked up to sit down.
“Technically I didn’t lie.”
“A lie of omission isstilla lie,” I seethed. “And back in September, I asked when was the last time you had sex with your wife, and you said, and I quote, ‘Darlin’, it’s been a while since that lassie road this old pony.’Now, I assumed that meant you hadn’t had sex in a while, but since I’m an attorney and a pretty decent one, I don’t hang anything on assumptions. So, to clarify when the last time you had sex with your wife was, I asked again, and you told me that you hadn’t even seen the woman since early June and you were pretty sure the last time you had intercourse was in April. I told you to keep it that way, did I not?”
I didn’t even pause to let him answer the question. “But today,todaywe get to court, and I find out that now, as we are in early November, you last were with your wife in JulyandAugust? Now she’s claiming she’s pregnant! And not only do I just find this out, I had to hear it from opposing counsel.” I slammed his file down on my desk at my last statement.
“Well, now that you put it like that, darlin’, it sounds like you might be a tad bit jealous.”
“Don’t even try it. Donottry to break up this moment with your humor. Do you get this? What you don’t tell me affects how effectively I can do my job. You failed to mention that you were still sleeping with your wife, and that she was pregnant, which means you cannot file for divorce at this time. And when I go into court not knowing important information like that about my client, I look incompetent. I do not like looking incompetent. Now, we have to wait.”
“What for? I’m sure that baby’s not even mine. I’m pretty sure I used protection.”
I began pacing my office, arms folded across my chest. “Richard, let me explain something to you. She is yourwife.It is extremely rare that a court will grant you a divorce while she is pregnant, whether or not the baby is yours. A court will not force a carrying mother to take a DNA test until after the baby is born. Therefore, now you are stuck with your wife for at least another seven months. Do you understand? You cannot get a divorce right now.”
He frowned as my words sunk in. “Guess I messed up, huh?”
I scoffed.
“So what do I do now?”
I leveled a harsh glare at him. “You wait.”
He sunk lower in his chair.
“Just please do me a favor and stay away from your wife if you are serious about this divorce, okay? If you’re not, let me know, and I have a list of marriage counselors I can refer you to. Would you rather fix your marriage than end it?”
He shook his head adamantly. “Not a snowball’s chance in hell. She’s stepped out on me one too many times. I told you, I don’t even believe that baby is mine. We had sex twice a few months ago. It was a mistake. It won’t happen again.”
Lot of good that’ll do, she’s already pregnant,I thought to myself.
“Okay, as of right now you have to stay married and make sure she gets the proper care for her pregnancy. I’ll write up an agreement for a monthly installment you’ll pay her from now until the time she gives birth. I’d advise you to keep contact between you two to a minimum. As a matter of fact, anything you need to communicate to her, you tell me, and I’ll pass along the message. Got it?”
“Got it,” Richard answered as he stood. He extended his hand to shake. At first, I hesitated. I was still pissed, but I knew that was mostly my pride. I reached across my desk to shake his hand, and Richard gave me a satisfied look.
“Enjoy the rest of your day, Richard,” I added as he made his way to the door.
“You too, darlin’.” He tipped the cowboy hat he wore and opened the door.
“You can leave it open,” I told him.
Once he was gone, I sat at my desk, taking a few deep breaths to refocus. I had a new client whose file I needed to familiarize myself with before we met later that week. This client had been a client of my father’s for a couple of years, and after a year of marriage counseling, he and his wife were ready to call it quits. Given his high-profile name as the host of a popular television game show, I was sure this case would take some time and was of high priority.
“You busy?”
I looked up when I heard my father’s voice accompanied by his knocking on my open door.
“Didn’t mean to scare you.”
