He allowed the question to linger before he resumed his seat in dramatic silence, and Hector’s lawyer opened her own statement with a receding chuckle.
“Your Honor, Dr. Hector Halifax’s reputation is pristine. His entire life he’s been dedicated to the well-being of others, especially his own son. Should a man be punished for loving and protecting his child from his mother’s neglect? Should a man who has nurtured and cared for young David during the past year be discriminated against for being a single parent?” She glared at Bethany. “Considering the petitioner’s numerous love affairs while she was married to my client, I doubt her marriage to Mr. Gage will even last long.”
The petitioner, in this case Beth and Landon, was the first to call up a witness. Beth.
She took a series of measured steps to the stand, inhumanly aware of the sexy lingerie that hugged her body under the dress. She sat and concentrated on inhaling, in and out, in and out. But for the way she truly felt, she could’ve been naked and strapped to an electric chair.
“Mrs. Gage, how long were you married to Hector Halifax?”
Beth focused on Mason’s striped tie. That lone, harmless tie was the only spot she would allow herself to focus on.
“Almost seven years.”
“Were you happy during those seven years, Mrs. Gage?”
She wrung her hands. “I was happy when our son was born.”
Mason thoughtfully paced the floor before her. Playing the game she supposed all lawyers played, he allowed her heart to beat three times before he spoke again. “Were you happy during the remainder of those years?”
“No.”
Mason swung round to face her fully. “No. You weren’t happy married to Hector Halifax.” He approached, his expression as intent as his voice. “Can you tell the court why you were unhappy?”
Skewered under not only Mason’s sharp brown gaze, but also a dozen others, Beth struggled to find a starting point.
“Did he physically abuse you, Mrs. Gage?” Mason leaned back on his heels and waited. “Was he unfaithful?”
She seized her cue, almost leaping. “Yes. He was unfaithful.”
Mason stole a brief glance in the judge’s direction. “Hector Halifax was unfaithful to you. When did you decide to leave him?”
“When I realized he’d loved another woman all the time he’d been married to me. And when I realized I didn’t love him anymore, maybe never really had.”
“How did Hector take it? Your separation?”
Aware of Hector’s eyes burning holes through the top of her head, she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of looking at him.
“We had several failed attempts to separate, but he persuaded me to stay. I was only successful when David turned six. Over a year ago.”
“Did his method of persuading you to remain married include blackmail, Mrs. Gage? Perhaps…in the way of these pictures? Presented to court during your first hearing?”
Beth spotted a wad of pictures in Mason’s hands, and the humiliation she felt threatened to overwhelmed her. Just to think of Landon seeing those pictures of her in different men’s embraces, even if they were fake, made her stomach roil. “Yes, that did play a part. And of course, he threatened to take David away.”
“Your Honor, may I present for evidence both the pictures and lab report which concludes these photographs have been tampered with?”
The judge received the stack of pictures and the lab paper Mason produced and reviewed them in tense silence. Beth squirmed in her seat, part of her wishing she’d had such a kick-butt lawyer on her side the last time she’d been in court, and another part dreading what came next. Hector’s lawyer looked so pale and pissed Beth was sure she was going to be that woman’s lunch.
Mason continued the interrogation, his questions expertly phrased in ways that shed light on the good, caring mother she was. A loving wife who hadn’t been properly appreciated by her first husband.
Her nervousness escalated when the topic led to the new man in her life. Landon. To speak of Landon and Hector in the same conversation almost felt like blasphemy.
Beth struggled to put up a brave front, an image of a new family, but in the deepest, darkest part of her, she knew what she said was a lie every bit as bad as those Halifax loved making. She didn’t offer a wonderful new family and a new father to David—she offered only herself and her love.
Suddenly, it didn’t feel like enough next to the Gages.
It didn’t feel like enough next to the protection, the safety Landon represented.
Everything he’d promised he’d do for Beth, he had. Whatever the verdict, Landon Gage had come through for Beth.