“You may speak with my client in court and nowhere else,” David says, stepping between us. “We’re here to seeif there’s any reason you should still be harassing her, Mrs. Biggins. I suggest, for now, you step back.”
“Don’t speak to my clients like that,” Samuel snaps.
“Then control them,” David counters, shaking his head. “I don’t take lightly to people harassing my clients in the hall.”
Rich pulls me tighter against his side, and I just look between them. James definitely let me down as far as standing up for me. The last attorney the Biggins had let them rip into me in the hall, and it always made the courtroom worse. Even if David can’t magically make this go away, I’ll love him just for saying something.
I can feel the tension rolling off Rich in waves, but David was twice as forceful with his demands to Rich to not say a word. He didn’t want anything to set off the couple, and I can see how a new boyfriend or fling might do that if they’re still arguing about the death of their son.
“There you are!”
The tension between the six of us breaks at the sound of a voice, and I blink and look away from the three of them to peer down the hall.
My brain has a hard time processing the pink blur barreling towards me until she hugs me. “I don’t know if you’re down with PDA, but you’re getting a hug right now, Kim. Get over it.”
I pull back and stare at her. Laci looks… very out of place in court. In a sea of greys and blacks and blues her pink outfit sticks out. “Laci?”
“Hiya.” She wiggles her fingers, and I hear David groaning beside us. Samuel must say something to the Biggins, because he ushers them in and avoids another interaction. “Who are they?”
“Laci,” David hisses, and she turns to glare at him. Behind her I see two other people approaching, and I’m lesssurprised to find Emilio and Myla walking towards us. “What are you doing here?”
“I just happened to hear that you’re in court for something,” she says, crossing her arms. They stare at each other. “And no, Myla didn’t tell me.”
He groans. “We don’t have time for this right now. Come on, Brynne.”
My eyes widen at his use of my legal name but Laci doesn’t even blink. Instead she grips my arm, holding me in place for a moment. Her eyes meet mine, and there’s something serious there. “Are those his parents?”
I hesitate. Last time I was this close to Laci I passed out. The realization that she and Emilio didn’t warn me more about Jonah weighed on my heart, but now I’m beginning to wonder if it was an overreaction. How much did she really know about him? “Yeah.”
She nods. “The rotten apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Remember that. They don’t get to make you feel like trash because their son is a POS.”
Blinking, I glance over at Rich. He nods and gives me a smile, and for the first time while standing in a courthouse, I feel something like confidence building in my chest. Maybe people can see the good parts of me between the bad.
“Brynne,” David stresses, and I look over at him. He’s impatiently gesturing for me to follow him. “Now. We don’t keep the judge waiting.”
He’s right. Rich kisses my cheek again, and I glance up to meet his gaze. He doesn’t look at me any differently than when we walked in here, and I try to imprint that look to memory just in case something comes to light and he changes his mind.
I follow David to the front of the courtroom, my sensible heels making it easier to keep up with him. I’m sure the other four are behind us, but I don’t let myself look back.
The glares coming from the other half of the courtroom burn my skin, and my confidence wavers as we sit behind the defendants table. David shoots me one look, silently reminding me to let him do the work, and straightens out with a smile. “Judge Clemens. Sorry for the delay. How are the wife and kids?”
~~~
What feels like a lifetime later, Rich walks me out of the courtroom, his arm looped around my waist.
Dismissed.Judge Clemens seemed to really like David, and they fell into easy conversation. He shot down everything that Samuel tried to present as evidence, pulling things out of his briefcase to hand to the judge.
David had copies of the hate mail the Biggins sent to me. He found a copy of the 911 call too, and requested that it be entered into evidence instead of having it played in court. Everything David had made sense in the judge’s eyes, and I watched numbly each time that Samuel tried to present something and he just as quickly countered it.
“We’re going to file this now,” David explains to me, tapping on his phone. He told me he’d already contacted his paralegal to begin drafting the protection order the judge granted me. The new charges were dropped, and Biggins’s attempt to sue and defame me was dismissed. “It’ll be filed before the end of the day. I’ll get the same email you do, and we’ll make sure everything is in order. Emilio and Russell can install the security camera on your front door.”
I nod numbly, Rich’s comforting touch rubbing up and down my arm. We’ve largely stayed quiet and let David take control, because this is his forte. And damn did he do a good job.
“Erica offered to help if you need it,” Myla says, walking on David’s other side. “To get everything pushed through before the end of the day.”
“It shouldn’t be too bad,” David says, and when I realize the two of them are going to start talking in legalese I zone it out. He’s already said a bunch of things that were a little confusing to follow, and just smiled and said his office would handle the details.
We stop for a moment outside the courtroom. It looks like others are coming out of different rooms too, and it’s crowded like it was before we went in. Rich stands right beside me, and I shoot him a soft smile.
