Total pages in book: 122
Estimated words: 115706 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 579(@200wpm)___ 463(@250wpm)___ 386(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115706 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 579(@200wpm)___ 463(@250wpm)___ 386(@300wpm)
I share a secret smile with Paula, the best, most kick-ass attorney and friend who ever fucking lived, before replying with, “I base it on what Claudia’s ex-boyfriend, Ricky Schaeffer, confessed to my attorney about a week ago.”
“Yep. It’s true. Claudia never saw C-Bomb’s email.”
That’s what Claudia’s ex-boyfriend, Ricky, testifies, when he gets on the stand, and, thank God, tells the fucking truth.
“How do you know?” Paula asks calmly, even though her heart is probably beating a mile a minute underneath her cool exterior, the same as mine.
“‘Cause I’m the one who replied to C-Bomb’s email,” Ricky answers. “After I replied, I deleted the email, so Claudia would never know about it. And then, I went ahead and blocked C-Bomb’s email address and social media accounts, too, so Claudia wouldn’t get another message from him.”
“How certain are you that Claudia never saw Mr. Baumgarten’s email?”
“One hundred percent. Trust me, if she’d seen it, she would have been on the first plane to LA. Not to mention, she would have let me have it for answering that email for her.”
A low din erupts in the courtroom among the few people in the gallery, and the judge tells everyone to be quiet.
“Why did you hide that email from Claudia?”
Ricky shrugs. “Jealousy, I guess. I’d been pretty obsessed with the idea of Claudia cheating on me for months by then—which she never did, by the way; so I watched her putting in her password on her phone one night, and then I started checking her phone every night, after she fell asleep.” He looks at me apologetically. “When C-Bomb’s email came in, I happened to be on Claudia’s phone at that moment; so while Claudia slept next to me, I replied and blocked him.”
“Why didn’t you want Claudia to receive that email, Mr. Schaeffer?”
Ricky motions to me. “Look at him. He’s rich and famous and looks like a tattooed god, and I’m just a regular guy. I knew C-Bomb was Claudia’s celebrity crush and she’d already had sex with him once. Now, he wanted to fly her and her baby to his fancy mansion in LA for a family reunion? Hell no. I knew the chances were high Claudia would fall in love with him in California. And what guy wouldn’t fall in love with Claudia in return? She was a dream girl. Sweet and pretty and super smart. And let’s not forget, she already had a baby with C-Bomb, so why wouldn’t he give her a real shot, if she came to California?” He shrugs. “So, I answered the email, blocked him every which way, and never looked back.”
“Meaning you never told Claudia about the email?”
“That’s right.”
Paula sighs, as I do the same behind her. We’ve struck gold here, thanks to Paula’s dogged persistence at finding this guy, and I’ll never be able to thank her enough.
“Thank you, Mr. Schaeffer,” Paula says somberly. “I’ve got nothing further.”
At the judge’s invitation, Ralph’s attorney gets up. “Mr. Baumgarten has promised to pay you a whole lot of money, if he gets custody here, hasn’t he?”
“Nope. C-Bomb didn’t promise me anything. I mean, yeah, he paid for my flight and hotel to come here. But that’s it. I came here to do the right thing, that’s all.”
“Why now?”
Ricky twists his mouth. “When Claudia died, I started feeling guilty about what I did. Claudia told me about how her dad repeatedly raped her as a kid, so I knew—”
“Your honor!” Ralph’s attorney screams, along with whatever his client is simultaneously shouting. Mayhem ensues, during which a bailiff steps in to keep Ralph at bay. In the end, however, even after Ralph’s lawyer continues his questioning, he only winds up giving Claudia’s ex-boyfriend yet another opportunity to repeat his firm belief that Claudia’s child shouldn’t go anywhere near Ralph Beaumont because of “the bad stuff” Claudia told him about her father.
“The kid should go to Aubrey or C-Bomb,” Ricky insists. He looks at Aubrey. “More so, Aubrey, probably, since I personally witnessed her being a really good auntie.” He shrugs. “I mean, if Aubrey thinks C-Bomb is up to the job, then I trust her judgment, and I know Claudia did, too. But my vote would be Aubrey. She’s a solid citizen, that one.”
“I have nothing further,” Ralph’s lawyer says, his shoulders drooping and his tone dejected.
I glance at the judge, my heart thumping. She’s stone-faced, but I feel like we landed a strong punch with this guy. The only question is whether it was a knockout punch or merely a flesh wound.
“Let’s take a fifteen-minute break,” the judge says. “When we return, we’ll hear from the court-appointed experts.”
Chapter 33
Caleb
Islowly let out the breath it feels like I’ve been holding for five minutes, as it becomes clearer and clearer the first court-appointed witness of the afternoon, a psychiatrist, thinks I’m minimally fit to be Raine’s father. I’m not perfect, the guy makes clear. Not going to win Father of the Year. I’ve got a “short fuse.” Could use some anger management counseling to help me learn some “coping strategies.” But, hey, considering all the shit my sister said about me during her testimony, I feel like the negative stuff the doctor says about me a) doesn’t outweigh his ultimate rubber stamp; and b) most likely doesn’t come as a big surprise to the judge, anyway.