Avoiding Temptation (Avoiding #3)(64)
Author: K.A. Linde

“I know what can help. I’ll be back,” she said, turning to leave.

“What? Lexi,” Jack called.

She stopped and turned back around.

“What is it? What should I tell Richard?”

Lexi smiled and whispered into Jack’s ear.

Jack laughed and nodded. “All right.”

“Tell him to be ready,” she said before turning and jogging out of the courthouse.

Lexi missed almost everything, but it didn’t matter.

She had found what she had been looking for. She hadn’t been sure that it still existed or that it would be enough, but she had to try. Jack would try for her. As long as the judge allowed them to contribute more information to the case, then they would be in the clear. If Bekah had completely bought out the judge of all sanity, then nothing they did would help anyway.

Lexi eased quietly into the courtroom and took a seat in the back. She didn’t need to move forward until Richard called for her.

Lexi tapped her foot impatiently. The adrenaline was pumping through her veins, and she felt the familiar rush that she got right before putting the nail in the coffin on a case she had been working on for a long time. And Bekah certainly was a case Lexi had been trying to crack.

Bekah sat on the stand. She had already been sworn in, and her attorney was asking her questions. Bekah looked the part, and it turned Lexi’s stomach. She had been coached well. Lexi didn’t even hear the question her lawyer had asked, but she heard the speech Bekah gave then. It was clearly well rehearsed.

“Cheating is never okay, but in marriage,” Bekah said, dabbing at her eyes, “it is so much worse. In marriage, you made a commitment before your friends and family and God. You signed a legal document with the state, acknowledging that you’re family now. It’s different. Why waste all of that time and love? Nothing destroys you that much, and if it does, then you should turn to your partner.”

Bekah looked over at Jack then with what she was trying to pass as true sadness. While Bekah’s act was good, it was still just an act.

“Your partner,” Bekah repeated. “Not anyone else. That’s what your partner is there for. If the partner is not, then you should at least have the decency to talk through it. Don’t put the other person through the ringer for your own inadequacies.”

Lexi was pretty sure she was going to throw up if she had to listen to another word of the bullshit Bekah was spouting. Yes, what Bekah was saying was true, but the context was all wrong. Jack hadn’t done anything!

Bekah continued talking about the photographs and telling the easy story that was spun out of the pictures. Lexi knew it was coming, but she still couldn’t keep from cringing.

“No further questions.”

Phew! Richard’s turn. Finally.

“Ms. Bridges,” Richard said, standing and walking up to her, “did you ever purchase anything for Ms. Alexa Walsh, who is pictured here?” He slapped one of the photographs down in front of Bekah.

“I’m not sure how that’s relevant,” Bekah answered snootily.

“Simple question, Ms. Bridges. Did you or did you not purchase anything for the woman pictured here?”

Bekah’s eyes flitted to her attorney, then to her father seated directly behind the attorney, and then to Lexi. Lexi broke out into a challenging smile.

“No. I don’t believe I did,” Bekah said.

Lie. And under oath.

“Really?” Richard asked, raising his eyebrows. “Your honor, I would like permission to submit two pieces of evidence before the court and request a subpoena for Ms. Bridges’s credit card history.”

“I object,” Bekah’s attorney cried, standing and throwing his fist down. “New evidence is not permissible during court proceedings.”

“What new evidence?” the judge asked. “And why a subpoena? Explain yourself, Richard.”

Richard gestured for Lexi to move forward, and she rose to her feet as Richard continued speaking.

“Ms. Bridges claims that my client had an affair with this woman. While only a few pictures, grainy at best, show my client having any sexual relations with Ms. Walsh, we can prove to you that these pictures were taken before my client was married to Ms. Bridges since Ms. Bridges herself purchased the dress in the photos.”

“I object,” her attorney said again. “There is no reason to admit this into the file.”

“If we had had all of the evidence you were bringing to the table by the discovery deadline, then we would have easily obtained this information and had it on file for you,” Richard cut in.

“Quiet, both of you,” the judge said. “Let me see what you have.”

Lexi handed Richard the folded red silk material of the dress she had worn to Jack’s birthday party all those years ago. It had been tossed to the bottom of her closet in New York—out of sight, out of mind. But when she moved, she had put it in a box with a bunch of other stuff that she had never unpacked. There it still lay when she had recovered it to hand to Richard.

Next, she passed him a picture she had taken off her dresser. She had felt bad about taking it without talking to Ramsey, but he hadn’t been home, and she hadn’t moved her stuff out yet. She and Ramsey had been standing together at Jack’s birthday party. A passing photographer at the event had taken the photo that night, and in the background, she could just see the birthday festivities and the Happy 25th Birthday, Jack banner hanging across the back wall. It was faint, but it was there. There was no mistaking it. Lexi had always hidden the picture behind some of the others that cluttered her dresser but Ramsey had always liked it…so she had kept it. Now, she was glad that she had.

Richard passed the evidence to the judge and explained each of them thoroughly. Lexi thought that Bekah and her attorney were going to combust. She had never seen Bekah fraying at the edges like this. Bekah was going to have an outburst. Lexi could see it, and so, she just smirked at Bekah.

Take that, Bitch!

The judge looked at the picture and the dress and shook his head. He was muttering under his breath to himself. Lexi couldn’t make out what he was saying, but she thought she might have heard, Damn kids. Maybe she had heard wrong.

“Ms. Bridges, would you be willing to submit a copy of your credit card history to the court from the time this picture was taken?” the judge asked.

Bekah swallowed and nodded. “Yes, sir.”

Lexi could hear the fear in her voice. She was sure the judge saw it all over Bekah’s face. Falsifying evidence, lying under oath—Bekah was surely adding up all the things that had gone wrong in her plan.

“Good. We’ll take a short recess for me to determine whether or not to proceed with this new evidence or to reconvene at a later time when this can all be properly processed,” the judge said, slamming the gavel down and giving them a short break.

Richard and Jack followed Lexi back out of the courtroom and into their room once more.

As the door closed behind them, Richard started talking. “That evidence is going to push the outcome to a fifty-fifty split,” he said confidently. He looked practically giddy with relief. He had been pretty sure that Jack was going to get screwed out of everything.

Fifty-fifty was way better than losing Jack’s entire livelihood to a Bitch who didn’t even need it!

“Good,” Jack said. “We don’t need to push for anything more than that. I just want it to be over with.”

“She’ll have to back down. The judge looked like he was going to have to use the evidence after Bekah’s comments,” Richard said. “Good thing you thought about the dress.”

Jack found Lexi’s hand once more and pulled her closer to him. “It is good.”

“I didn’t want her to get away with it,” Lexi said softly, her brown eyes meeting his baby blues.

She wished in that moment that they were alone and this was all over. She just wanted to start over with Jack. After today, they would finally be rid of Bekah and the past and could think concretely about the future.

They spoke for a few more minutes about what to do going forward, and then they were called back into the courtroom. Lexi took the seat directly behind Jack this time. It was clear she was part of this hearing whether or not Richard had wanted her to be. He was probably thanking her at this point since, based on the prenup, the offending party would have to cover his attorney fees.

The judge ambled back into his chair and took a seat. “I’ve decided to include the evidence into the file as long as Ms. Bridges produces the proper paperwork. We’re going to break for lunch and return in an hour.” He banged his gavel down and disappeared as quickly as he came.

An hour came and passed so slowly that Lexi felt like she was trying to run through shoulder-high water against a current. She ate something, but she couldn’t really tell anyone what it was. Jack had been just as high-strung during the break. He wanted it all to be over with more than anyone. He was the one who had been dealing with this for the past nine months and dealing with Bekah four years more than that. It would surely be a relief like nothing he had ever experienced to have this all over and done with.

Lexi and Jack walked back up to the courthouse together. She hoped that she shouldered some of the tension for him—that was all she could hope for. As they got closer to the entrance, she noticed someone standing just outside with his arms crossed over his chest. Lexi squinted against the sun beaming into her eyes. She was sure that she was imagining what she was seeing. As she got closer, she realized that her eyes weren’t deceiving her.

“Clark,” Lexi said tentatively in greeting. What was her ex-boyfriend doing here? “Hey.”

Jack tightened his grip on her hand like he thought she might pull away, but she had no intention. She felt absolutely nothing for Clark anymore. If she hadn’t pulled away in front of Bekah, she certainly wasn’t about to for Clark.

“Lexi,” Clark said, nodding at her. “Jack. Isn’t it funny, seeing you two together? No? No, not really, I suppose.”

“Hey,” Jack said, just as tentative.

“Are you in court today?” Lexi asked, trying to figure out why he was standing here.

He was in business, but she hadn’t kept tabs on what he was doing. She hadn’t actually even known he was still in the city.

Clark chuckled and shook his head. “No. I came to talk to Jack actually.”

“What’s up, man?” Jack asked.

Clark stepped forward and dropped his arms. Lexi had no idea what this was all about. The last time she had seen Clark had been at Jack’s wedding. He had been a total ass to her, and everything had just gone downhill from there.

Clark stuck his hand out to Jack as if to shake. Jack stared at it hesitantly, like he was wondering what to make of it all, but then decided he had no real reason not to take the offered hand, so Jack shook his hand.

“I just wanted to say that we’re even,” Clark said, squeezing.

“Even?”

“A long time ago, you took what was mine,” Clark said, completely calm, “and now, I’ve taken what was yours.”