Life Begins (22 page)

              “I would like to see where home is for you. I think it would be interesting to spend some time outside of the US. Maybe finally be able to meet your parents and allow them to meet the kids and get to know them.”

              “Maybe let new little one be born in Serbia?” he asked her quietly.

              Josie wasn’t sure about that, but she also knew that she wouldn’t rule it out. “We’ll see. I’m willing to let God decide what will happen.”

              He nodded, as if that made complete sense. “I will talk to him. We have close relationship,” Žarko said, bringing out a laugh from her.

Chapter 23

              Being in the courtroom always made Josie nervous. The last time she’d had to sit at one of the tables, she’d been railroaded by Gary and his scummy lawyer. This time, she didn’t have to sit there by herself. She had her husband beside her, acting as a buffer between her and the mean looks that Gary kept throwing her way.

              She tugged her nice blouse over her growing stomach, not necessarily trying to hide her pregnancy, because after two children, her stomach had grown much too used to spreading, but mostly, trying to protect the growing life inside of her.

              On the table, spread across the shiny surface were various documents. A quick look told her that most of it were her testimony, but the way that Žarko kept certain pages hidden told her that not everything had to do with her.

              The bailiff called for attention, ordering everyone to rise as the Judge entered the room. It didn’t escape her notice that her husband and Harrison shared a look. She had no idea what that could mean until the case started and Harrison interrupted. “I apologize, your honor, but I feel that it is necessary to request a new judge for this case. It has come to my client’s attention that you and the plaintiff are related, and so through conversation, we have determined that we are not comfortable with you settling this matter between us.”

              It wasn’t surprising that Gary immediately began to protest. “What the hell are you talking about? Why are you lying?”

              Judge Cory kept his reactions less noticeable, by nodding. “I understand completely and it is your right to request a new Judge.” He ended the session immediately, excusing himself from the case and left the room.

              Gary wasn’t so easily dealt with, but Harrison produced both enough photos and even recording to let it be known exactly what was going on and what Gary had tried to do by scamming the court system. The new judge, when he finally arrived, wasn’t exactly amused by the evidence of what almost happened. In fact, Judge Conners made it clear that he would dismiss the case altogether if Gary couldn’t gain a handle upon his emotions.

              Josie could only sit back, silently stunned by all the work that Žarko and Harrison had put in to block Gary’s way of getting revenge. It helped her begin to relax, even as Gary’s lawyer laid out the basis of his case, claiming that she had tricked her ex-husband into giving away his parental rights. He tried using the swiftness of her marriage as evidence that she’d planned this all along, to be vicious because of the divorce process they had entered.

              They called for Josie’s mother to take the stand, the older woman not even bothering to glance at her daughter as she tried stabbing her in the back. It was hard for Josie to watch, and really, with the pregnancy hormones, it was hard to hold back the tears at what she was seeing her mother do to her.

              The bailiff swore in Ms. Cassidy Jones and then, the prosecution began to ask her questions, all designed to paint Josie in a bad light. It just made Josie want to smack him.

              “Ms. Jones, you are the defendant’s mother. Is that correct?”

              The older woman leaned forward to say into the microphone. “Yes. I am Josie’s mother.”

              “And you were there with her during the time of her marriage to the plaintiff?”

              “Yes. They were married for ten years before getting divorced.”

              The snaky lawyer paced back and forth, a cold smile on his face. “Were you aware that your daughter had two children during her marriage?”

              Again, Josie’s mother leaned forward to say, “Yes,” into the microphone. “She gave birth to two children during the end of her relationship with her ex-husband.”

              “Now,” the lawyer said, standing strategically in front of Josie, his back turned to the judge so that the other man couldn’t see the smirk on his face as he tried to get a reaction to his benefit from Josie. It was just his bad luck that Žarko kept a tight hold to her hand to keep her from actually doing anything. “Did Mr. Williams desire the birth of his two children?”

              Cassidy cleared her throat. “No. I remember my daughter telling me that her husband clearly did not want to have any children and that he would have preferred for her to have just aborted both pregnancies. I advised her the same to keep him happy and her marriage stable.”

              Neither one of those things were lies either. Josie clearly remembered those conversations and even more, she remembered her reaction at the very suggestion of getting rid of her babies. Even now, her hand slid down to cradle over her womb so that she protect the current child that she carried.

              “But she had the children anyway?”

              Josie’s mother huffed. “Yes. She insisted that she would keep the children and gave birth to a little boy and a girl.”

              The lawyer suddenly turned, walking back toward the stand. “So, what happened when it came to the divorce? Her husband did not desire to have children and yet she gave birth anyway. How did she intend to work on her marriage when they did not agree?”

              Cassidy twisted her lips. “She wanted him to sign over his parental rights. She didn’t have to put the father’s name on her daughter’s birth certificate because of the divorce, but she told him that he didn’t need to be involved because she had someone else willing to do it.”

              That was a lie and everything inside of Josie wanted to scream that out, but she fought to keep her peace and to allow Harrison to do his job. Harrison climbed to his feet, cool as a cucumber and a pleasant smile on his face. “Your former son-in-law never desired the children from his marriage, correct?”

              “That’s right.” Now Josie’s mom began gaining an attitude.

              “I have, but one real question. Were you at the hospital during each time that your daughter gave birth to your grandchildren?”

              “Objection,” Gary’s lawyer called out. “This has nothing to do with the case.”

              The judge turned to Harrison. “Counsel, does this question have a point?”

              Harrison nodded. “You have a mother that is willing to testify against her daughter. I only feel that it is necessary that I establish the relationship between mother and daughter.” The judge allowed the question to remain.

              Her mother paused, looking a little nervous. She cleared her throat a couple of times before leaning forward to answer. “Well, I had to work and she’s a grown woman, so I didn’t think that she needed mommy to sit with her at the hospital.”

              Harrison nodded as if that made perfect sense. “You also counseled your daughter to have an abortion twice, correct?”

              The woman huffed. “I already answered that question. Yes. I told her to get rid of the pregnancies to keep her husband happy. She didn’t listen to me.”

              “And she then told you that she would make her husband sign over his parental rights? When was this?” It was at this moment that Josie began to understand what Harrison was doing. Just listening to the words coming out of her mother’s mouth showed the sheer ridiculousness of her answers and the situation that Josie had found herself in.

              More the shame, her mother had no idea what it is that she had set herself up to. “She should have just gotten rid of the children like I told her to. Nobody asked her to have them, but she wanted to be a mother and just let her husband walk away from her without even getting anything out of it.” Then the woman seemed to understand that she said something wrong, because she suddenly stopped speaking.

              “No further questions.”

              The judge didn’t seem to be happy. “I want to see both councilors in my office right now.” Court went into recess in the meantime.

              Žarko guided Josie into the hallway, where she finally felt like she could take a deep cleansing breath. “That felt a little bit like a circus,” she said.

              “Is according to plan.” He guided her over to the bench, where they sat side by side, waiting for word about what would happen.

              Gary had also exited with her mother, who still refused to look her daughter’s way. Gary, of course, seemed to have no trouble looking at Josie. He moved toward them, as if to do something, but Žarko was already ahead of him, standing to his feet and making it clear that he was the bigger man. “Do not try me” he said to her ex-husband, pointing toward Josie’s mother stood. “You will take the traitor and you will go sit down away from Josie. Talk to her. Try to touch her and you will wish you never had.” Then he remained standing there until Gary and her mother finally slunk away to do what he said.

              Josie shook her head. “Honestly, he is something else.” Still nothing compared to her mother. The four seemed to wait for hours, Josie hoping that this whole nightmare would end swiftly. Eventually, she could no longer wait and turned to her husband. “I’m going to the restroom and then maybe we can go to the canteen and get something to eat?” When he nodded, she made her way, following the signs to the women’s room. She was the only one there, which suited her fine as she took care of her business.

              But the comfort didn’t last long before she heard the door opening, just as she pulled up her pants and prepared to leave the stall to wash her hands. Her mother stood there, wringing her hands as she stared at her. Josie paused for just a moment, before deciding that it would be best to wash her hands and be done with all of this.

              Too bad her mother didn’t seem to get the message. “Josie. Don’t act like that with me.”

              Josie snorted with bitter laughter. “How am I acting? Betrayed? Like my own mother tried to play me and make me look like a manipulative bitch?”

              “What did you expect, having two kids with a man that didn’t want them? I told you, do whatever you can to keep your man. So what if you had to get a couple of abortions. Women do it every day.”

              “So it’s okay that my spirit dies because I sin by taking the lives of two innocent babies? Did you know that a baby’s heart is beating by eight weeks of pregnancy? At a time when most women find out that they are carrying? Did you know that by twenty weeks they feel pain? Can you imagine what they must go through having their lives ended because of man’s selfishness? They have brain function and I don’t care that other women may have no problem taking a life just because they believe a fetus doesn’t count as
life
. I disagree with that view. I disagree with the selfishness with which everyone in this worlds lives. You and Gary saying that I needed to end the pregnancies killed every single bit of my spirit. But, I’m not supposed to be offended?” She’d never been so angry in her life.

              Keeping a man was never going to make her compromise her beliefs. To her, life began at conception and having a child was too much of a blessing for her to throw it over for someone else. She finished washing her hands and dried them with a paper towel. Her mother tried to block her from exiting, but Josie wasn’t about to let her.

              “Move away from me. You’ve showed me who you are and what you care about. You think that Gary is going to keep taking care of you if I go back to him? You’re more of a fool than I thought.” She brushed past her mother and ran back to her husband’s side.

              She had no idea she’d been crying until his fingers brushed underneath her eyes. “What happened?”

              She shook her head. “Let’s just go eat. The
beba
is starving.” She couldn’t wait to go home and be done with all of this. She would forgive her mother when she cleared her thoughts and emotions, but if there was one thing that Josie settled on, it was that she refused to allow her mother access to her children, not even the older girls. The woman was just too toxic.

              “The judge dismissed the case,” Harrison said to them as soon as he reached them on the bench. “There’s not enough evidence and it’s hard to fight when he initiated both the process of divorce and the signing away of his parental rights.

              “That means we can go home?” Josie asked, totally perking up at the news.

              “As soon as the judge official closes the case out.”

              She jumped to her feet, giving Harrison a massive hug for getting them through this ordeal. “Thank you, Harrison. You are a life saver.” He returned the hug gingerly, before setting her back.

              “Hey, I’m just doing my job. If you weren’t so detailed in keeping documents, we wouldn’t have gotten this far.”

              She had to smile at that. “Well, whatever it is, I appreciate it. This is an experience that I never want to go through again.” Žarko wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close into his side.

              “We will have to celebrate with dinner,” her husband said.

              “I’ll put it on the calendar.” The two men shook hands. “Now, let’s head into the courtroom to finally put an end to this thing.”

              Josie felt her whole body relax. She glanced up at her husband, giving him a bright smile. Things were finally starting to look up. Her whole spirit rejoiced in it.