Chapter 76

“How do you feel?” Derek asks me as I sit beside him and the lawyers. Today’s the day—my day in divorce court. “Like I might vomit,” I admit sheepishly.

He smiles at my honest response. “Well, try to avoid that.” He nods to the men and women in suits. “The team is prepped and ready to go.”

I nod. We’d all met a few days ago to answer my questions and review what could come up in questioning. Everyone is ready for this forward and backward.

My stomach feels so queasy. “I don’t know how to get through this.”

Derek brushes his hand with mine but pulls away almost immediately. “I’m right here. We’re going to get through all of this together, okay?”

That’s when Ryan comes through the door with his lawyer, sporting a black eye and busted lip. He’s limping, too, and followed by a police officer.

Well, he’s sure seen better days.

When his eyes lock on me, I quickly look away. My panic easily starts to rise.

“Look at me,” Derek says. He takes my hand and squeezes it. “Breathe, Esme, you’re safe.”

I nod again, trying to keep my shit together in front of this entire room.

“All rise for Judge Townson,” a voice calls, and everyone in the room stands, including Derek and the lawyers.

I see Annie and Lily from the corner of my eyes. They look just as anxious as I continue to feel.

“You may be seated.” The woman in the black robe waves her hands. “Bailiff, what’s on the docket this morning?”

“Your Honor, this is Esme Price vs Ryan Price in settling their divorce.”

She’s older than my mother, but Judge Townson looks like the sweet grandmother from every fairytale imaginable.

“And is someone going to tell me why Mr. Price here has been decorated with these colorful injuries?” She asks, raising a greying eyebrow.

One of my lawyers, Mark Harrison, stands. “Your Honor, Mr. Price here has taken it upon himself to take things into his own hands.”

“Translation counselor?”

The one female at the table stands up next to Harrison. Madison Mulvey adds to what her partner has said. “That we have eyewitnesses, video surveillance, and Esme’s testimony that her husband has been stalking, harassing, and intended to rape his wife into submission.”

The room of people behind us breaks into a set of murmurs.

“Mr. Price, is this information true?” Judge Townson asks, narrowing her eyes.

“It’s slander, Your Honor,” Ryan’s lawyer, Mr. Preston, replies.

“Counselor, I’m speaking to your client, not you.”

Ryan, still acting smug behind his disgusting bruising, nods at the woman. “She’s been out to get me since the moment I asked for a divorce.”

“A divorce that you demanded, Mr. Price,” Madison snaps back.

“And why did Mr. Price ask for a divorce?”

“Because he got my cousin pregnant.”

The words come out of my mouth so fast I actually feel my eyes widen. Derek and my lawyers all look over at me, making my mouth go dry and my face flush.

“And you’re Esme?” The judge asks.

“I am. Sorry.”

Mr. Preston clears his throat. “If we’re done with the theatrics brought on by the defendant and her lawyers—”

“Rich coming from a man whose client tried to rape his own wife,” Harrison spits back.

“And yet, there’s been no proof of any rape!”

Mulvey is quick to respond. “Except my client’s neighbor, Derek Anderson, who sits here with us, owns the entire apartment complex where she lives. We have on tape, multiple instances of him showing up at her door where he continues to harass Esme, stalk her, attack her and the neighbors’ daughters, and break into her apartment where screams can be heard on the videotape.”

Everyone seems to move their eyes over to Ryan.

The judge looks at the file in her hands, skimming through the documents. “I see a restraining order?”

“That was never given to my client,” Preston replies with a cocky smirk.

“Your honor, I have three different police officers who will testify that Mr. Price ran from them to avoid being served. And, as mentioned in section seven, sub-section five, because he was never given the papers, the police gave up serving the man.” Harrison is sharp and focused, which, in all, makes me feel much more secure.

“You’re telling me that Mr. Price avoided any place he could be found just to keep himself from being given paperwork?”

“That’s exactly what he did.”

Townson glares over at Ryan, which feels like a step in the right direction.

“Mr. Price, let me get this straight. You impregnated your wife’s cousin, then served her with divorce papers. She filed a restraining order on you, which you strategically ran from any chance you got. Then you raped your wife?”

Preston stands back up. “Your Honor, he never raped her.”

Harrison looks at the table, raising his eyebrows in annoyance. “No, but he tried.”

The judge looks back at our side. “Do you have footage proving he was trying to harm your client?”

Derek slides something to Harrison, who stands and walks to the television in the room. “I have dates, times, video, and audio of the hallway outside Miss Esme’s apartment on this USB. He is easily identified as the one going after our client on four separate occasions.”

He clicks the drive into the TV before playing the footage from a few months ago. In the video, it’s easy to see me going over to Derek’s apartment before Ryan comes rushing into the frame. In the background, I can hear the girls and I screaming in fear before Derek appears.

The screen changes to Ryan at my door when Annie and Lily were over, where he’s screaming at me while I stand there, mortified before my friends come out and then Ryan rushes away.

The screen changes again to the day of the attack. Ryan appears, walks down the hall, and uses what looks to be his own key to get into the apartment.

Then, it’s less than an hour later, and we can see me walking down the hall. I open the door and kick it shut, and the screaming from inside my apartment fills the courtroom.

“You’re going to keep making things difficult. You need to learn a lesson, Esme. I am your husband. I am the world you abandoned!”

I close my eyes and bite my lip to keep myself from breaking down in front of the entire room. Hearing those words again, knowing what’s coming, that’s the worst part.

“I make the decisions! That baby is mine, and you’re going to learn your place after all this time!”

“Ryan, no, stop! Stop, stop!”

“It’s time you finally learned a lesson you bitch.”

“Ryan, you can’t do this to me, please!”

“We’re far past the point of groveling, Esme. I’m not playing nice anymore. You’re going to learn that all you’re good for, all you’re meant for, is to be the mother to my child. You don’t seem to get that you’ve lost.”

“Ryan!”

I open my eyes to tears but look at the screen to see Derek having entered the picture. He comes into the apartment and, as I remember, takes care of Ryan.

“I’ve seen enough,” the judge says. “Turn that off.”

Harrison does what he’s told, and I wipe at the tears under my eyes. I don’t need anyone’s pity.

“I just have one question for the court,” Townson states, clearing her throat. “Am I right that Esme Price is pregnant with Ryan Price’s child?”

Mulvey confirms this. “This wasn’t made aware to Esme until after her husband asked for a divorce. But yes, she is pregnant.”

“So, this isn’t just about assets and stalking and a rape attempt. This is about the baby, too.”

Mulvey nods. “We want to keep Mr. Price as far away as possible from the baby. We’ve only seen how destructive and violent he is. And Esme’s cousin that he impregnated? She lost her baby, and he kicked her out.”

The judge raises her eyebrow again. “You get her cousin pregnant, and you get her pregnant? Then you abandon them both?”

Preston rolls his eyes, annoyed. “This is being blown out of proportion of my client's character!”

“Your client has proven he is not fit to be a husband at every turn!” Mulvey snaps, baring her teeth like a dog. “Your client has behaved impulsively and erratically since serving his wife with divorce papers. All he wanted from her was a housewife and a baby-making machine. When he didn’t get that, he decided to take everything he could get his greedy little hands on from her!”

“So says every woman who doesn’t like the way a man treats her!” Preston fires back, shoving his hand through his dark hair.

“You better watch your sexist ass in my courtroom, counselor!” The judge growls. She picks up the gavel and smacks it on the stand before pointing it at the lawyer. “Where is the proof that your client is innocent?”

“The truth is, he isn’t. Mr. Price feels he is entitled to what he cannot have. He aimed to take Esme’s money, assets, and then her baby, all because he wanted it,” Mulvey states plainly. “And we have plenty of evidence to support that at every turn.”

“Bring me everything,” Townson instructs. “I will call a recess and look over everything on both ends.”

Preston is starting to look a bit unnerved now. “Your Honor—”

“Nope, not a word, counselor. You look at your client’s wife over there, and you tell me that you don’t see the goddamn fear in her face. People don’t cry the way she is, shivering in fear, unless they’ve gone through some fresh hell. And with all your years under your belt, I thought you knew better than that.”

Remaining stunned, Preston sits back down silently.

“We’ll take a thirty-minute recess, and then, once I’ve seen everything, I will make my final decision.”

So, with the smack of her gavel, Townson takes all the paperwork and walks out of the room.

“We just wait now?” I ask quietly to Derek, who has been squeezing my worried hand under the table.

“The judge is on our side,” he assures me.

“Better than that, she’s pissed at your husband’s idiot lawyer,” Mulvey remarks, smirking.

“What happens if she doesn’t believe me?”

“I think the better question is what will you do with the money Ryan’s going to owe you,” Derek winks.

One can only hope things may finally swing in my favor.