Tears Fall at Night - smashwords (13 page)

Book 2 In

THE PRAISE HIM ANYHOW SERIES

By

Vanessa Miller

1

Psalm 137: 1-4

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.

For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion.”

How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?

Joy Marshall strutted into the Municipal Courthouse at 8:55 am, just minutes before the judge would be seated. She was wearing the Michelle Obama sleeveless dress look. And since she was a P90X workout girl—with the t-shirt to prove it—Joy had the arms to carry off such a look. Her hair was pulled up on top of her head, giving her face an exotic look that caused the law breakers and the law makers in the courthouse to stop and stare. But Joy didn’t even notice. She had one thing on her mind that morning… revenge. As far as Joy was concerned, revenge was best when served cold and she was about to serve up a heaping pile of it.

She hadn’t spoken to her father in five years. He’d shown up at her law school graduation four years before, and Joy had turned her back to him when he tried to congratulate her. Her father had sent roses to her office when she had accepted an Assistant District Attorney position a year and a half ago, but Joy had sent the roses back. She’d also sent him a very unflattering picture of herself hugging a toilet and puking up her guts. She’d told her father that the picture represented the girl he had created… but he could never lay claim on the woman she would become.

Ramsey, her stepfather had taken that picture of Joy after one of her famous nights of drinking. The next morning he took her to breakfast at the same IHOP he’d taken her mother on their first, unofficial date. While Joy struggled to hold her head up, Ramsey slid the picture over to her. After taking a quick look at the picture, Joy’s head started pounding. She ran her hands down her face, as a look of embarrassment crept up. “Where’d you get this?”

“I took it when you came home last night. I wanted you to see what a fine and upstanding woman you turned out to be.”

She heard the sarcasm in his voice and didn’t like it one bit. “Marrying my mother doesn’t give you the right to get in my business. I’m a grown woman and prefer to be treated as one.”

The waitress placed scrambled eggs and bacon in front of Ramsey and pancakes in front of Joy. When the waitress left their table, Ramsey said, “I’m not in the habit of treating people who live in my house like grown folk when they don’t pay bills, and do nothing with their lives.”

“I finished law school. Isn’t that what my mother wanted? Okay, I did it, so stop harassing me.”

Ramsey leaned back in his seat. He studied her for a moment and then let her have it, no holds barred. “Look Joy, I know that this adjustment has been hard on you… probably harder on you than anyone else, but you can’t self-destruct over it.”

What did he know about the pain she was dealing with? As far as Joy was concerned, her father hadn’t just betrayed her mother when he cheated with Jasmine. He’d betrayed her as well, because she had looked up to her father and believed he could do no wrong. And then one day she discovered that he wasn’t just doing wrong, but he was doing it with Joy’s best friend. So in one crazy and heart-wrenching day, she’d lost not just her father and best friend… she’d lost her trust in mankind. And no matter how hard she tried, Joy just couldn’t figure out how to get it back.

“Joy, I know that you’re angry with your father, and you’re trying to punish him for what he did to you. But you’re going about this the wrong way.”

Her stomach was not in the mood for food, so she pushed her plate away. But she was finally ready to listen to Ramsey. “What do you mean?”

“Success is the best revenge, Joy. Drinking yourself into an early grave is not going to hurt Nelson Marshall. You know what will stick in his gut, though? Show your father that you succeeded even though he chose to walk away.”

Ramsey’s words had so encouraged her, that Joy stopped drinking and put an honest effort towards finding a job. Now she was an Assistant District Attorney and today was the day that she would finally exact her revenge on her father.

The so-called Honorable Judge Nelson Marshall had been assigned to preside over her most recent case. When he saw her name, he should have recused himself on the spot, but since he chose not to do the right thing, as usual, Joy was about to do it for him.

“Good morning, Ms. Marshall. You’re looking good today,” a big bellied security guard, who obviously needed Ramsey to give him a good talking to so he could lay off the beers, said to her as she walked over to the security area.

“Thanks, Malcolm, how are you doing this morning?” Joy handed her Michael Kors handbag and briefcase to the security guard and prepared to go through the metal detectors.

“I’m doing good. Getting married next week,” Malcolm told her as she walked through the metal detector.

Joy almost offered her condolences. But she reminded herself that not everyone viewed marriage as an apocalyptic occurrence. But they knew just as well as she did that over half of all marriages end in divorce. That includes the ones that claim to be Christian marriages, like the one her mother and father had, until the day he decided to leave her for his girlfriend. After her father had done his dirt and divorced her mother, Joy hadn’t been able to look at marriage the same way. She’d even called off her own engagement to Troy Daniels and she’d been living happily single and not interested in mingling at all ever since. She didn’t have time to go over all of her woes with Malcolm, so she simply said, “Congratulations. I wish you the best.” Joy took her belongings and walked away from him as fast as she could.

Joy got on the elevator heading to the third floor. She walked into courtroom A, where Lance Bryant and his repeat offender were already seated and waiting on Judge Do-Wrong to make his royal appearance.

She caught Lance staring at her as she made her way to the prosecuting table. He was a fine brother with wavy hair and a beautiful smile, but she wasn’t interested. Joy put her briefcase down as Lance leaned her way and said, “Long time no see… how’ve you been?”

Joy gave him a close lipped smile and then turned back to her paperwork. She had tried two other cases against Lance in the short time that she had been an Assistant DA. Lance seemed like a good guy, but he sure picked some loser clients. He handled everything from assault to robbery, and always seemed to believe that his clients were as innocent as new born babes.

“Oh, so it’s like that, huh? You not speaking today? Guess you’re still upset about that whuppin’ you took the last time.”

She’d won the first case, but Lance had, indeed, won the second case. Joy was actually thankful that Lance won that case, because as it turned out, his client had been falsely accused. But he wasn’t about to win this case, not even close, nor was she about to deal with her father the entire week that it would take to wrap this case up.

“All rise,” the bailiff said as Judge Nelson took his seat behind the bench.

Joy’s fists instantly clenched as she watch her father sit in a chair he didn’t deserve to be in. She had tried her best to get him out of that seat during the last two elections, but the people of North Carolina just kept voting the adulterer back in. A few years back, Joy had delighted in telling her father that she had been the one to provide the media with information about his girlfriend and his divorce. He’d tried to apologize to her for what he had done to their family, but she wasn’t interested in hearing it.

Judge Nelson shuffled a few papers around as he avoided looking in Joy’s direction. He then said, “All we are doing today is setting bail, so let’s get to it.”

Joy said, “I am not prepared to have a bail hearing yet.”

Nelson took his glasses off and glanced in his daughter’s direction. “What’s the problem, Counselor?”

Joy smirked. Using the court in this manner could seriously damage her career, but she didn’t care. Every chance she got, she was going to let her father know what an awful human being he was, and if anyone had a problem with it, she would simply start her own law firm. “You are the problem, Your Honor.” As she said the words
Your Honor
, her eyes rolled and it was obvious to all present that she thought he was anything
but
honorable.

Nelson Marshall seemed to shrink in his seat for a moment. He closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. “This is not the time or place for this, Joy. You have a job to do and so do I. Let’s just get on with it, all right?”

“No,” Joy said flippantly. “You should have recused yourself from this case the moment you saw that I was the attorney of record, but since you didn’t, I am now publicly asking that you recuse yourself.”

“Am I missing something?” Lance asked as he looked from Judge Marshall to Joy. His client nudged him, and then whispered something in his ear.

“I see no reason why I should recuse myself. I am more than able to be an impartial judge in the matter that is before the court.”

“It is well known that I informed the media about your marital misconduct, so if you do not recuse yourself, I will request a judicial review.”

Lance lifted his hand in order to get the judge’s attention. When Judge Marshall turned to him, Lance said, “If there is some sort of problem between you and the assistant DA, then I respectfully request that Attorney Joy Marshall recuse herself so that we can move forward with the case. My client is entitled to his day in court and he does not want to delay the process waiting for another judge to be assigned to the case.”

Joy hadn’t seen that coming. The defendant was entitled to a speedy trial, so his wishes might outweigh hers. She turned to Lance and said, “If the defendant is concerned about being able to post bond today, I am more than willing to work out bail with this judge.”

Lance took her up on the offer. Bail was set for ten thousand and then Joy got back to her mission. “Now that we’ve handled that bit of business, I would like to reiterate the fact that I would like you to recuse yourself,” she said to her father, the judge.

The defendant nudged Lance again. Lance spoke up again, “Your honor, if one of you has to go, my client would prefer that it be the prosecutor. He does not like the idea that his case would be delayed while he waits to be put on another judge’s docket.”

“What’s his problem?” Joy asked indignantly. “If he makes bail, he’ll be at home with his family and friends while he awaits a new trial date.”

Lance turned back to Judge Marshall. “My client has a right to a speedy trial. His rights shouldn’t be tossed aside at the whim of the prosecution.”

Nelson turned to his daughter and said, “Well, Counselor?”

“Well what?” she snapped at her father, confused by the entire incident. Why on earth wouldn’t a criminal be happy to have his court appearance moved back? He’d have more time to spend with his family and fellow criminal buddies before he is proven guilty and spends the next ten years behind bars.

“It looks like you’re the one who needs to recuse,” Nelson said to his daughter.

Joy threw up her hands, grabbed her briefcase and shouted, “Fine. You win. You always win!” She grabbed her purse and rushed out of the courtroom before she made a bigger spectacle of herself.

It just wasn’t right. Her father was an awful human being, but things kept coming up roses for him. She wanted Nelson Marshall to pay for leaving her mother and ruining the family unit that she, her mother and brother had held dear. She had been a Daddy’s girl, wanting to be just like Judge Nelson Marshall, for she had imagined that there was no greater human on earth than her dad. But that was before her father left her mother for Jasmine, her ex-friend, the skank. As a matter of fact, Jasmine had been Joy’s roommate and her father had met Jasmine when Joy brought her over to the house for Sunday dinner.

As Joy reached the exit door, her head swiveled to the left as she spotted Jasmine seated in the last row of the courtroom. The woman had the audacity to roll her eyes at Joy as she looked her way. Joy wanted to reach across that aisle and go upside her head, the same way her mother had done to Jasmine years ago. But she reminded herself that she was in a courthouse and could get arrested for doing something like that.

Joy pushed open the door and walked out of the courtroom, and had almost made it out of the building when she heard Lance hollering behind her.

“Hey Joy, wait up.”

She turned and waited for him to catch up. When he was standing in front of her she said, “Make it quick, Lance. I have a ton on my plate today.”

“What happened in there? I’ve never seen you so frazzled.”

Feeling foolish, she looked down at her feet and then glanced towards the wall behind Lance. She didn’t owe him an explanation for her behavior. He wanted her to recuse herself and she did. That’s it, end of story.

When Joy didn’t respond he asked, “Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Yeah,” she said, regaining her voice. “You can stay out of my business.” With that she turned and left the building.

A Forever Kind of Love

Book 3 in the