Page 56 of Ashes of Us
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At the courthouse, they met up with Maverick and Emilia, who explained Xavier couldn't get another day off work. “He's insisting I text him regular updates, though.” Emilia chuckled. “And says he'll be very upset with me if I don't.”
When David arrived a few minutes later, they entered the courtroom and took their seats. As the clock crept closer to nine, Danica began to wonder if Mathers and Amy were going to show up and started to feel a mixture of nervousness and excitement. “What happens if they don't show?” She asked David quietly.
“The case will most likely be dismissed, and bench warrants will be issued for them for failure to appear.” He murmured back. “Since the Judge specifically ordered Lucy to appear, it would be a horrible idea not to show.” The words had barely left his mouth when Mathers and Amy came in and took their seats with just two minutes to spare. Glancing over, Danica saw Amy's eyes were red and swollen, and Mathers looked like he was about to explode. He dropped his briefcase on the table with a loud bang! And stared straight ahead, not looking at or talking to Amy at all, who looked like she desperately wanted to run away.
“Oh, to be a fly on the wall.” Danica heard Alex's low, amused voice behind her, followed by Emilia's and Maverick's stifled laughter and had to bite her lip so she wouldn't join them. She desperately wanted to know what happened and was hopeful that Mathers would explain at least a little bit of it before Lucy had to take the stand.
At nine, the clerk told everyone to rise for the honourable Judge Vincint Perella, then called the matter of Preston V. Preston and asked if all parties were present. Mathers took a deep breath and stood up slowly, shaking his head. “Your Honour, Ms. Gamache is not present.”
Danica looked back at the others, feeling her mouth drop open as a shocked murmur rippled through the courtroom, before looking back to see how the Judge was taking the news. The answer to that was not well. At all. He leaned back in his seat and stared at the ceiling for a long moment before taking a deep breath and looking back at Mathers. “She was under subpoena and under my direct order to appear this morning. Why isn't she present?”
Mathers swallowed, but to his credit, he held the Judge's gaze. “Ms. Gamache was staying with my client, and after hearing the audio yesterday, my client kicked her out. We have not been able to reach her.” Danica exchanged a look with David, who looked gleeful. Judge Perella looked like he was chewing his tongue in an attempt not to lose his cool completely. “We'll stand in recess for fifteen minutes.” He said finally. “If she is not in this courtroom, I will issue a capias for her immediate arrest and proceed without her testimony, and I will take her absence into account when I rule.” He banged his gavel and stood up, leaving the room in a swirl of black robes.
Mathers nodded and all but ran from the courtroom, pulling his phone from his pocket as he did with Amy close behind him. Danica turned around and leaned over the divider, looking at the others in bemusement. “Did anyone have 'Lucy doesn't show' on their bingo card this morning?” she asked quietly.
“I'm somehow both shocked and not surprised at all,” Emilia muttered as she typed on her phone frantically, Alex nodding in agreement, but Maverick shrugged nonchalantly.
“I had a feeling this would happen.” He said, stretching his leg out in front of him. “She runs when she's confronted, remember?”
Before Danica could respond, Mathers and Amy came back in and took their seats, both of them looking resigned to the fact that Lucy would not be showing. The Judge came back a few minutes later, and the clerk called the court back to order.
“Well?” He asked, regarding Mathers over the rim of his glasses, expectantly. “Where is she?”
Mathers cleared his throat and stood up. “It appears she has blocked both me and my client; we were unable to reach her. I would like to file a motion to recess for twenty-four hours to find her.” Danica looked at the Judge, sending a silent plea to the universe that he wouldn't agree.
“The court will not wait.” He finally announced, looking like a thundercloud was sitting on his face as he turned to his clerk. “Issue the capias.” The clerk nodded and passed a piece of paper over to one of the bailiffs, who then left the room. Clearing his throat, Perella leaned forward in his chair. “The petitioners have failed to meet their burden, and the only witness who could address the most serious allegation in this matter has refused to appear. The respondent's motion to dismiss is granted, effective immediately.”
Danica sat frozen for a second before completely breaking down, half laughing and half crying. She hadn't really thought the Judge was going to rule in Amy's favour after the shitshow the previous day but having it confirmed lifted the feeling of dread that had settled on her and the relief she felt completelyoverwhelmed her. She was vaguely aware of Alex and Maverick congratulating David on his win, and Emilia's arms around her neck as she hugged her tightly. Before she could thank David and Maverick for all their work on her behalf, the Judge banged his gavel and called for order.
“Furthermore, given the nature of the statements captured on the dash cam and entered into evidence, the court directs that the transcripts and recordings be forwarded to the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office for review of potential criminal conduct.” He banged his gavel once and stood up. “Court is dismissed.”
Danica turned to David as the Judge left the room again, grabbing his arm to get his attention as the courtroom erupted into what sounded like a hundred conversations at once. “What does that mean?”
“It means the judge believes Lucy committed a crime, most likely sexual assault of an incapacitated person, and he wants it looked into because that's a felony in Massachusetts.” He smiled at her. “Come on, I think we all need to go get breakfast to celebrate our win.”
Chapter Forty-Four: Fallout
The fallout over the trail was intense and immediate. Emilia, wanting to know what happened between Amy and Lucy, started asking in the family group chats before they even left the courtroom and had the full story from one of Jasper's cousins, who was still in contact with Geri's youngest daughter before they finished their celebration brunch at IHOP.
“Oh, you guys need to hear this!” Emilia grinned and leaned back in her chair, wiping her mouth as she scrolled her phone back to the start of the conversation. “According to Rachel, who heard it directly from Anita - those are Jasper's cousins, but Anita is Geri's youngest daughter and Geri is Amy's best friend, co-conspirator and Cecil's sister who chose Amy's side in their separation.” She explained to Alex, David and Maverick in response to their confused expressions. “Don't worry about the who's who, just know this is as close to the source for the information as I can get without a listening device in Amy's kitchen.” When they nodded, she continued.
“According to Anita, most of this falls on her mother, who never approved of Danica and has been whispering in Amy's ear since Jasper asked Danica to marry him. She's the one who's been insisting that Danica had to be sleeping with her boss,because why else would he pay for her university, then hire her as his executive assistant, etc., etc.” She rolled her eyes, shaking her head. “Because, as it usually is with people of her belief system, you can't possibly love someone and want the best for them unless there's some transaction if you're not family or married, but I digress. Anyway, she's spent the better part of the last five years putting doubts in Amy's head, who would then take them to Jasper, who would defend Danica and shut her up... until the next time she hung out with Geri.”
Danica scoffed softly. She wasn't surprised at all about Geri, the woman was barely a factor in her life, but of course, she felt like she needed to stick her nose in everyone's business. Danica met her, decided she didn't like her and had been polite but indifferent and distant to the woman whenever they were in the same room, ignoring her not-so-subtle digs and passive-aggressive remarks. Still, Danica had to admit that it gave her a certain feeling of power to know that a woman she barely acknowledged existed had been so focused on her that she practically had squatter's rights in Geri's brain. “Of course it was Geri. Remember when she kept insinuating I was a lesbian and using Jasper as my beard?”
Emilia burst into laughter and nodded. “Oh god, that was priceless.” She snorted and chuckled again, this time at the guy's confusion. “She spent all of Christmas Day one year making snide comments about Danica like ‘Marriage hasn't really changed herlifestyle, has it?’ ‘She's playing the part well enough, I suppose,’ and my personal favourite. ‘I just think it's beautiful how accepting he is of her truth,whateverthat may be.’ All because Danica was excited about the new drill press that Jasper got her.”
“Seriously?” Alex raised his eyebrow, looking at Danica in surprise. “You guys let her get away with that?”
Danica shook her head as she sipped her orange juice. “Jasper kept giving me this pleading look, like 'please just ignore her, don't make a scene.' Which I did, until she commented at dinner about ‘some people marry for love, others for optics’ or some crap along those lines. I was over it, so I responded with, 'That's a pretty wild theory. Personal experience?”
“She left right after dinner in a huff.” Emilia giggled as the others snorted at the image of Danica matching the passive-aggressive attitude of the other woman to shut her up. “So, to get back to all this, over the years, Geri slowly poisoned Amy against Danica, which was made easier when Jasper started to put distance between him and his mom. When Lucy showed up at her door the day after the accident and spun a whole story about how after Jasper picked her up that night, she convinced him to accept the child, and that Jasper was considering leaving Danica so he could be in his child’s life, she latched on to it in her grief and what she said in court was true, the fact that she actually approached Danica and asked for the sperm was why she believed her.”
“Anyway, on the way home the night before, after hearing the clips from the dash cam, Amy confronted Lucy about her lies, and instead of coming clean, Lucy doubled down and kept insisting Jasper wanted to leave you and have the child with her. At that point, Amy seemed to realize there was something wrong with her and told her she had to get out of her house immediately before she called the cops, which, of course, scared Lucy into leaving. Apparently she left everything behind, though, never even took her clothes.” Emilia raised her eyebrow and scrolled down a bit more. “And apparently, Amy's lawyer lost his shit on her this morning when she showed up without Lucy and told him she had kicked her out.”
“I bet he did.” David leaned forward, pushing his plate to one side as he folded his arms. “If the judge had thought he deliberately didn't produce his own subpoenaed witness because it would have made him look bad, then he could have reported him to the bar for discipline, not to mention he's already in trouble with the higher-ups in his firm for taking the case without doing the proper research into everything.”
