I tried to keep my voice even and my explanations as clear as possible. But I braced. For the question I knew was coming. Just as Keisha asked something, I caught sight of a figure in the back row.
I hadn’t seen him come in, but he glared at me now, anger pouring off him in waves. Derek had testified two days ago. He’d spilled lie after lie, and I had no idea if the judge had believed him. But I couldn’t figure out why he was still here. Whatever job my parents had likely paid him for was complete. The only reason he might be sticking around was in the hopes of seeing me suffer.
“Ms. Foley?”
I gave myself a little shake and met Keisha’s concerned gaze. “I’m sorry. Can you please repeat the question?”
“Why are you concerned about your parents having custody of Justin and Lyla?”
I swallowed against the burn tracking up my throat. “Because my father was physically abusive to both my sister and me for as long as I can remember. And my mother covered for him.”
“Can you please describe the physical abuse?”
My fingernails dug into my palms. “He was good at hiding it. Punches to my abdomen. Sometimes a knee. But he broke my ribs once that way.”
Keisha turned to the judge. “We have x-rays of those broken ribs in evidence.” The judge nodded, and Keisha continued with her questioning. I recounted incident after incident, and each retelling felt like living through the event all over again. By the time Mr. Paisley rose for my cross-examination, sweat trickled down my spine.
“Ms. Foley, is it true that you were a rebellious child?”
“I would need more clarification on what you mean by that.”
He pushed his glasses up his nose. “Did you sneak out of the house to meet your boyfriend?”
“Yes.”
“Did you attend parties with alcohol and drugs when you were only sixteen?”
“Yes.” It killed me not to defend myself. Not to ask if he had only drunk a beer once he turned twenty-one. To tell the judge I’d never done a single drug in my life. But I stayed with the one-word answers that Keisha had urged me to use.
“Were you sexually active with your boyfriend at the age of fifteen?”
Keisha stood. “Objection. Relevance?”
“Goes to character,” Paisley ordered.
“I’ll allow it but tread carefully,” the judge said.
“Yes.”
“And you were arrested and convicted of the distribution of narcotics, correct?”
It went on like this. Question after question, each one so carefully asked, I knew my parents had helped their lawyer skirt the line of what I had no choice but to admit to. Tears burned the backs of my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. I wouldn’t give my parents the satisfaction of knowing how much it all hurt. How much it killed.
And worse, how it made me doubt myself. Wonder whether I was good enough to raise Justin and Lyla. But when I lifted my gaze from my lap, I met Mason’s. His was so full of rage, but I instantly knew that it wasn’t directed at me but at my parents and their lawyer. His anger was a balm to my shredded soul. It was what I needed to press on.
“Ms. Foley,” Paisley interrupted my connection with Mason. “You married Mr. Decker a week after your sister died?”
“Yes.”
“Did you do that in an attempt to convince the court you were equipped to take custody of two minor children?”
I stiffened against the wooden chair. “I did it to give Justin and Lyla the best home possible. Because Mason is the most caring man I have ever known. And because we are all incredibly lucky to have him.”
“Is it true that you and Mr. Decker didn’t have a relationship prior to your marriage?”
“No.” I kept my voice even, but inside, I was panicking. Where was this information coming from? No one but our closest friends knew that Mason and I had spent little time together before marrying. And none of them would throw us under the bus.
“Mr. Decker’s sister informed us that she had never heard of you until a week after your marriage. What would you say to that?”
