Why did she agree to do a divorce case again? Rei thought to herself, while she played with her pencil idly, trying not to look to annoyed. Why did the prosecution always think they could hold everyone up?
She heard the door shut and the jury quiet down, but the black haired beauty didn’t look up. She put her hand reassuringly on her client's arm, as the blonde girl's crystal blue eyes followed the prosecution to their seats. Rei grabbed the girl's hand, feeling sorry for the girl, as her client's eyes filled with tears. She heard the squeak of the prosecution‘s chair. Why would anyone want to divorce this girl? She was spectacular; kind, beautiful, and willing to work it out.
Rei ignored the prosecution for a moment more, knowing it would make the lawyer angry. She had heard about this guy, heard he was a mean son-of-a-bitch. He was supposed to be good, could win any case. Her partner Ami had warned her he charmed all the lady lawyers. Rei had no doubt she would be able to resist him.
“All rise for Judge Thromberg,” Rei stood subtly pulling her black skirt down. The judge walked in and nodded at the bailiff. The judge's eyes met with Rei's with such determination that it sent adrenaline running through the lawyer's veins. The judge possessed an air of authority, than none could rival. Despite being fairly young and beautiful with green-black hair running down her slim form, she had quite a reputation. Thromberg had presided over several cases of Rei’s and she was a spit-fire with a overly large sense of justice. Rei knew better than to underestimate the judge. Though Rei would never audibly admit it, Thromberg was someone Rei admired and respected.
Everyone sat down and the plaintiff started with the opening statement. Rei took the chance to peak at this so-called Lady Charmer. His blonde hair was slicked back with a silver stud through his right ear, he wore a navy suite and stood in such a confident way it almost made Rei gag. His jacket coat was on his chair already with his white sleeves rolled up. He wore a shiny grey tie with what looked like signatures all over it. Rei rolled her eyes. He doesn’t look so great to me! Rei huffed mentally.
“… And I will prove that Mrs. Alexander did actually commit adultery. Mr. Alexander not only deserves a divorce, but has earned one.” During the last line, the prosecution looked at Rei, with a sparkle in his eye. He grinned in a i-know-i’m-your-god sort of way, Rei hated him immediately.
“Thank you J.D,” Said the Judge as he sat down. “Defense?”
Rei stood, unimpressed by “J.D.” She snuck a glance at his client, the man sat looking overly pitiful. His shoulders were slumped, his suit was askew and his ponytail was a mess. He had rings around his eyes and his nose was red, as if from crying. This was quite a different man from the one who had haughtily refused to reconsider his divorce case even after her client had begged him sincerely before the case began. Rei was revolted by the man, who was so obviously after his wife’s money.
“I will prove simply that Mrs. Alexander not only did not cheat on her husband, but is in fact a victim to her husband’s girl-hitting, greedy paws. ” Rei tried to emphasize her point as she met with each juror’s eyes, then sat down with her legs crossed. She gave J.D. a half smile, just to let him know that she wasn’t going down easy.
“Plaintiff call your first witness,” Judge Thromberg demanded.
“We call Mr. Alexander’s mother to the stand.” J.D. rose. An elderly woman wearing a floral print dress rose and slowly walked toward the stand and swore to tell the whole truth and nothing but.
“Mrs. Alexander…”
“Oh, call me Ma’amsy, deary.”
J.D. cleared his throat and looked at the judge as the rest of the courtroom giggled. She nodded briefly and he continued, “Ma’amsy, could you tell me about your son’s character?”
Rei rolled her eyes. As if a mother wasn’t biased! “Oh he’s a good boy. He is quite a business man and he makes good money, or at least better than his father. He once helped get the neighbor lady’s cat out of a tree. He even helps me carry my groceries.”
“Does he tell you about his life?”
“Yes, he tells me everything.”
“Everything?”
“Yes, he told me when he first went out on a date and when he got his first kiss. With Melissa? Do you remember that dear?” she looked at her son and he nodded somewhat embarrassedly.
“Did he tell you about Serena?” J.D. said pointing toward the defense’s table.
“Why, yes. Yes he did. He came home with a sparkle in his eyes and I knew he was in love.”
“What did he tell you about her?”
“He said he loved her and hadn’t ever met a girl quite like her. She was the only one who had ever refused him, he is such an attractive man and all.”
“Did he invite you to his wedding?”
“Of course!”
“Did you meet Serena before hand?”
The old woman nodded.
“What did you think of her?”
“She was very pretty and sweet, but she ate a lot of food. More than a lady ought.”
“Anything else?”
“Well, She refused to sleep on the couch, she absolutely insisted on sharing a room with my son. I was a little upset because Seiya is such a good boy and he doesn’t need her kind of temptation. But she insisted, and I had no choice but to refuse. They spent the night in a hotel. I couldn’t have that kind of shenanigans going on under my roof!”
Rei finally had enough, she stood. “Your Honor, I fail to see how a biased mother’s opinion of her son is relevant. I motion…”
“Over ruled,” The judge said. “I think it does have some relevance.”
Rei sat down a little disgruntled. She crossed her arms. How stupid this was becoming.
J.D. smiled at her pout from the witness stand, “Is there anything else you want to tell us?”
“Just that I never liked her. I knew she was loose from the minute I saw her. I told my son, ‘Seiya she isn’t good for you, don’t have this wedding.’ But no, he didn’t listen. And now look where he is!”
“Thank you, Ma’amsy.” J.D. sauntered to Rei’s table and leaned down trying to tempt her. “Your witness,” he said with a wink.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Rei muttered. Serena Alexander put a comforting hand on Rei’s shoulder, which helped bring Rei’s neutral confidence back. Her client was being wronged and she had to stop it. She stood and went to the witness stand.
“Mrs. Alexander…”
“Please call me Ma’amsy, honey.”
“Mrs. Alexander,” Rei stressed. “Did your son have many girlfriends?”
“Yes, he IS an attractive boy.”
“Did they ever stay the night?”
“Oh, no. I wouldn’t have it.”
Rei paused and the elderly woman caught her son’s attention. “You should have picked her deary. She’s a pretty one!”
Rei glared daggers at Seiya, who sunk down in his chair. She gave a futile glance at the Judge, silently telling her this was a waste of time.
“Did your son ever date any loose women?”
“Oh no, He would never do that.”
“But you don’t know?”
“Oh, I know all right. He isn’t that kind of boy.”
“Did you ever meet his girlfriends?”
“When he was younger, but not since he moved out. Until Miss Serena, she had him so bewitched with that pretty face of hers…”
“Thank you. You may step down, Mrs. Alexander.” Rei tried not to look weary or disgusted while she returned to her seat. Serena leaned over and whispered, “Don’t worry, she is such a controlling mother you almost have to feel sorry for him. She believes he’s an angel and not capable of any harm,” she paused studying Rei’s face. “I didn’t like her either.” Rei cracked a smile at such a sincere confession, but quickly regained her composure.
“Next Witness,” the judge demanded.
“We call Yaten Starlight to the stand.”
Rei waited while a young man with long silver hair that was slicked back in a rough ponytail walked to the witness stand. He swore to tell the truth with a “Yeah,” and sat down on the stand. He looked bored and had diamond earrings that glittered in her eyes as he turned his head to fix his hair.
J.D. approached the stand confidently. “State your name and relationship to the plaintiff for the court.”
“Yaten Starlight, I’m his best friend,” he stated non-chalantly.
“Was Mr. Alexander in love with Mrs. Alexander?”
“Please. Less formal names here. Yes, seiya was in love with Serena,”
“How do you know?”
“The first day he met her he was very distracted. We had gone out like we normally did on a Friday night. He seemed distant, and when I wanted to go do our usual activities he wasn’t interested as he normally was. When I asked him what was wrong, he said he had met a girl. I tried to get his mind off her with another beauty but he wouldn’t have it. He wanted only her,”
“He wanted only her,” J.D. repeated for the jury. “That doesn’t sound like a man who would part with his wife easily. How was their relationship?”
Yaten shrugged, making eye contact with Rei’s client. “I assume it went well. I began to see less and less of him, then I had heard from friends that he proposed. Next thing I knew, I was at the wedding. They looked happy to me.”
“Wow, a man who spends more time with his girl instead of his friends, sounds devoted to me.” J.D. smiled at Rei as he went back to his seat, leaving a note on her desk.
Rei ignored it and scowled momentarily then stood and approached the man, whom she had already taken a disliking to. But he perked up at her approach, openly checking her out.
“What happened after the wedding?” Rei asked, trying to remain professional.
“What do you mean?” Yaten responded staring at her chest.
“Did you see your friend after the wedding? How often did you see him?”
“Oh, all the time. We started going out on Friday nights again. It must have been his guys night out. You could come with us, if you promise to be a good girl,” Yaten winked. Rei ignored it. She was used to these kind of man-pigs.
“Guys night out? Does that mean you never saw Mrs. Serena Alexander?”
“Oh, no, they would invite me over for dinner often. She is… a decent cook.”
“Did they ever fight?”
“Yeah, but doesn’t every couple?”
Rei scowled again, but then began to pace around the room. “What did they fight about?”
“They fought about her cooking, I guess she burnt a lot of things at first. He always seemed to be angry that the laundry wasn’t done. You know, regular stuff.”
She turned on Yaten, brows furrowed. “He was mad because the laundry wasn’t done? That doesn’t seem very loving.” She paused for a moment to notice the blonde haired girl who still sat at her table. She looked frail yet beautiful. She was dressed in a summer dress that was white with orange flowers. This girl looked innocent, she didn’t look like someone who had dealt with laundry or with the scum of a husband she had had.
“Where did they meet?”
“Well, heck. I introduced them. They met at a bar. She was the hottest babe in the whole place, not to mention filthy rich.”
“Indeed. Then what happened?”
“I had gone to pick her up, but she wasn’t very interested. I don’t think she had gone to bars often. So I bet Seiya he couldn’t get her to dance.”
“Where were you? Was it the same place you went on Guy’s night out?” Rei asked quickly turning to the witness stand.
Yaten paused, looking straight at Seiya, a bit of panic in his confident eyes. She smiled, finally she struck on something.
“Seiya met Serena at a bar. But Guys Night Out was at clubs.”
“What kind of clubs?”
Again a pause.
“May I remind you, you are under oath, sir,”
He nodded slowly and looked her straight in the face, “Strip clubs ma’am and other kinds of gentleman’s clubs.”
“Oh?” Rei asked, “So you are saying that when you first met my client you were at a bar?”
“Yes,”
“And several days later you were at a strip club and Mr. Seiya Alexander wasn’t interested in the girls because he had already met Serena at a bar the night before?”
“Yes…”
“And he started being interested in them again after getting married?”
“Well, yeah.” He said again.
“That doesn’t sound like love to me, did she just put up with it?”
He looked at her again, as if measuring her up. “I don’t really know.”
“You said you went over often, and you don’t know how she felt after you both came home from a strip club?”
“Yes,”
“That doesn’t make much sense. How did Mr. Alexander treat his new wife?”
“Fine,”
“I need a little bit more of an answer than that, Mr. Yaten.”
“She seemed fine, she cooked and cleaned and did his bidding and as good wife ought to!” He yelled at her.
Several women in the jury huffed. Rei smiled again. This was why she had become a lawyer. “You’re saying she was servile? And that all women should serve their husbands?”
“Well…” Yaten smiled lewdly at her and she took the opportunity to glance at J.D. to make sure he was drinking this in.
“You have to answer the question, Mr. Starlight.” She reminded him.
“That was Seiya’s attitude, yes.” Yaten declared.
“Thank you, that’s all, Your Honor,” Rei said tartly and returned to her chair to gave her client’s hand a quick squeeze.
“Sorry, man,” Yaten whispered to Seiya so the whole court could hear. “But she was hot! What can I say, I was flustered?”
“I read your note,” Serena whispered to Rei. “J.D. asked you out.”
Rei caught J.D.’s eye and ripped his note so he could see. She smiled beautifully, licking her lips.
“Next witness,” Judge Thromberg stated agitatedly.
J.D. stood up still staring at Rei, “Actually, Your Honor, I ..uh… I wanted to request a recess to discuss with my client.”
Setsuna Thromberg pursed her lips in agitation. “Permission granted,” she sighed. “Court will recess at noon tomorrow.” She pounded her gavel and left the court room.
Rei smiled slyly at J.D. as Seiya, whose pitiful composure was now long gone, left in a huff. “You haven’t won yet, my sexy little vixen!” J.D. whispered at her as he followed Seiya out of the court room.
She turned to her client, and the small blonde girl looked at her with admiration shining in her eyes. “We haven’t won yet. You had better come to my house tonight and bring as many of the witnesses as you can. We have some research to do!” Rei told the girl.
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I smoothed down my should length black hair a little and paused at the door, pulling down on my leather jacket and listening to the muffled sounds of laughing girls inside. I knew Rei was working late on her case and felt a little guilty that I had not attended her first triumphant day. I had brought her and her witnesses Chinese, as a sort of guilty apology. I pressed the bell.
I hope this would make it up to her, we had been dating for about two years now and things were finally started to get serious. I wasn’t sure I wanted them that way, but Rei was by far the best girl I’d ever dated. I mean how high up can a biker like me ever hope to go besides a beautiful intelligent lawyer. Even though it pained me to admit, lately there was something off, something missing about our whole relationship, but I couldn’t place it. So I ignored it.
The door flung open and a smiling, raven-haired beauty stood before me. “Darien!” she hugged me visibly delighted by this new turn of events. I relaxed a little, I was in the clear. “Come in!” she said.
The girl turned aside revealing the contents of her apartment, several girls and a lone guy who sat around a round wooden table. Papers were strewn everywhere, books piled the floor, a white board was set up at the head of the table with a list of names and other words written in black marker, underneath were some rather elicit looking stick figures. The girls were obviously having way too much fun, much to the guy’s disadvantage. Poor guy! His pale cheeks were still colored from some comment made by this gaggle of happy girls.
“Everyone, this is my boyfriend, Darien. Darien this is Lita, Mina, Andrew, and my client Serena,” she pointed to each girl and the lone guy. They all looked like they just shared a good joke, with their eyes shining and smiles still on their faces. But my eyes rested on the last girl, hair of sunshine, eyes of the sky, body of a goddess. She should be the most spectacular thing in the room. Instead she gave me a brief sad smile, her hair looked droopy, her cheekbones protruded a little bit more than was health, and an unholy look came from her sad eyes. It made my soul cry in agony. I didn’t know what kind of suffering she had gone through, but I wanted to save her from it. And there was something about her and that look I couldn’t quite place. But I couldn’t keep my eyes off her…
“Nice to meet you all,” I said staring specifically at Serena and she gazed back. And even though I knew Rei would be pissed, I couldn’t move my eyes away. What was it? The depths of those eyes, the sorrow she obviously felt. She must be really taking the divorce hard. “I brought some Chinese for everyone, since I couldn’t make it to court today,” He held up the large brown paper bag, and set it in the middle of the table. Everyone else dug in, but Darien and Serena’s eyes were locked. He walked over to her while everyone else was scrounging for the Sweet and Sour Chicken.
“I’m sorry about your divorce. It must be hard,” he squatted on the ground beside her chair.
She laughed faintly, “Yeah,” tears started filling her eyes and my heart couldn’t take it. She was so beautiful, how could any guy have treated her like this.
“Don’t worry, Rei is a very good lawyer.” I reached up and wiped her tears away.
“I know,” she said softly.
“If you ever need anything,” I said on a whim and handed her my card. I rose slowly feeling Rei walking over to us, knowing that was my cue to leave. After all, the girls had a long night ahead. Rei walked me to the door, as always.
“Thank you for the Chinese. Are you coming to court tomorrow?” she stared at me with those smoky violet eyes, putting her hands under my jacket and looked at me pleadingly. It was the same look that had held a sway over me since we first met, that tempting, languid, sexy look. I was pained to admit that right now it didn’t do anything to my heart or my pulse.
“Of course,” I said, leaning down I gave her a short kiss which normally made me feel like I was on the edge of a revelation. Today, I could only see blue eyes and wish it was golden strands I held in my hand now, rather than the thick, silky black ones. I moved back immediately. This was not good!
“See you tomorrow,” she said, shutting the door gently behind me. I walked away, with a sinking feeling in my stomach, yet something quite different when I pictured those sad blue eyes. Why did life have to be so damn confusing?
