“State the basis of your objection, Mulroney,” Mark Bretton snapped.
“Indecent—”
“That’s not an objection.”
“I will hold you in contempt, Mr. Bretton, if you continue like this,” Judge Harper said.
Bretton sent Kia abetter tone it downlook. She’d already said her part, and her words had landed the way she needed them to. Sullivan was beaming, still clasping her hands over her chest. Nina must be rolling her eyes on the inside.
Sullivan took the stand next.
“Ms. Sullivan, please tell the court about the inappropriate communications Mega Eats initiated with you without the knowledge or consent of your attorney,” Nina began.
She shot Mulroney a look that could have frozen the CO2right out of the atmosphere and then set it on fire.
“Mega Eats sent someone to my restaurant. He contacted me outside of the official settlement negotiations.”
“And what did this representative from Mega Eats say?” Nina asked.
“He suggested that I say my marriage to Kia Jackson was fake, that Kia was using me, and I was duped. He said they would release me from all blame if I did this. And if I didn’t, I’d end up here, at risk of losing everything.”
“For the record, Your Honor, I’ve filed a bar complaint against Mr. Mulroney for permitting this likely violation of the professional rules of conduct,” Nina said. “I find it very unlikely Mr. Mulroney was unaware of this contact. So, Your Honor, you can see what we’ve been dealing with.”
Harper glanced at Mulroney with a disapproving glare.
“Now, Ms. Sullivan, during your courtship with Ms. Jackson, did she make any false representations about herself?” Nina asked.
“No.”
“How about any other material fact to induce you to marry her?”
“None.”
“So you weren’t scammed?”
“Objection. Leading,” Mulroney said.
“I’ll rephrase, Your Honor. Tell us about your awareness of the circumstances surrounding Ms. Jackson’s marriage proposal.”
“She wanted to marry me.”
Sullivan was sticking to Nina’s no-extra-information rule.
“Were you always in love?”
“Interesting question. Complicated answer. Back in school I wasn’t interested in love, so I didn’t see it sneaking up on me. I liked going out. I liked flirting with the guys in our program. But you know what I loved more? Cooking with Kia. The more time I spent with Kia, the more I’d rather stay up all night cooking with her than go out to a bar with someone else. I had fun with Kia.Kia inspired me to be my best. She had my back when I forgot an ingredient or was about to miss a step in a demonstration.
“But when I think about it now, I know when I started to fall for her. It was winter in New York. Really, really cold. She was out in the school parking lot trying to deep-fry a turkey, stuffed with god knows what, probably caramel corn, which was going to be delicious even though I’d never admit that in public. I can see her. She was wearing some ridiculous nylon jacket with graffiti hearts all over it. She had her hair up in two puffs. Before she saw me coming, I watched her. Everything was gray. You know that low gray snow sky. Gray snow piles on the side of the parking lot, but that day it was too cold to snow. She looked so serious. Then when she saw me, she smiled so big I felt warm all over. And I loved her. And I didn’t realize it.
“I realize it now, and I realized it at the grange the night she showed up. Through all the noise. All the bull—I meanstufffrom Mega Eats, I saw her and I thought,I’ve missed you. So. Damn. Much.Kia is kind, honest, and committed to what she believes in. She wants to make the world a better place. She makes me happy, and she’s beautiful inside and out, and when I wake up in the middle of the night when I’m eighty, I want her next to me. And that started in school. How could I not say yes to her when I’d missed out on all these years we could have been together.”
Mulroney asked Sullivan several questions after Nina finished. When Mulroney finally gave up trying to trap her, Judge Harper struck his gavel. Sullivan stepped down from the witness stand.
“Ms. Hashim, Mr. Bretton, Mr. Mulroney, I’ll take this under advisement and get my decision to you by the end of next week.”
“That’s it?” Sullivan asked when she, Nina, Mark, and Kia were standing outside the courthouse, Portland city life bustling around them. “Does he just email you the verdict?”
“Yeah. Not nearly as exciting as on TV,” Nina said. “It’s a bench trial. No jury so it’s just Harper and his conscience.”
