Chapter 26 #2
How could he have been so stupid as to let Wayfair manipulate him? Because that had obviously been the lawyer’s goal all along. Max saw that now. Wayfair had been sowing these seeds for weeks at least.
And I walked right into it. What the hell is wrong with me?
He’d seen those pictures of Lana. Known that the man had not only scared her. He’d enjoyed it. Wayfair had gotten off on Lana’s fear, on the control. Max had seen red and lashed out.
Why didn’t I stop myself?
Finally, Lana stepped out into the hall. She saw him down at the end. Her heels clicked as she came toward him.
She wasn’t looking at him. She had no expression at all on her face, but Max knew her. He knew Lana so well that he could feel her anguish, right underneath his own skin.
“I’m so sorry,” he began.
“Not here. I need you to drive.”
She wouldn’t say anything else until they were in his car, pulling out of the parking garage.
Lana was typing onto her phone. “Take me to this address.” She held up her screen, displaying a location on the other side of town.
“We’re not going home?”
Even as he said that word—home—he felt it slipping away. Like the refuge they’d created together over the last few days was already gone. Destroyed by what he’d just done.
You ruined it. Just like you knew you would.
But he didn’t want to believe that. He loved her, and he hoped that maybe she felt the same about him. What they had together was stronger than one mistake.
“I need to go talk to Heather Barnes’s sister. Claire. She skipped the trial today and thank god for that. She didn’t have to witness what just went on.”
“L, please tell me what the judge said. What’s going to happen with the trial?”
“There is no trial, Max. There is no case. The judge granted everything Wayfair asked for. The mistrial, everything.”
Max cursed. “Tell me what I can do. I’ll help get everything ready for the new trial. I’ll pay for your department to hire a new lawyer to assist you. Something.”
“There won’t be a new trial. The judge ruled that the mistrial was my fault. Double jeopardy has attached, and that means that Ryan Hearst can never be tried again for Heather’s murder. Unless I can somehow fix this, he’s going free for good.”
Lana had spoken in a monotone. Like she could hardly believe any of this herself.
“Your fault? That’s ridiculous. I admit that I really messed up, but the judge can’t possibly blame you. Didn’t you tell her what Wayfair did?”
“I tried to explain that someone’s been stalking me. She didn’t want to hear it. I asked for time to brief the issues, for a formal hearing, anything at all to somehow give us a chance of changing her mind. Which any other judge would’ve permitted. But Vaughn wasn’t having it.”
Max slammed the flat of his hand against the steering wheel. “But that’s not fair! Did you see those pictures? Wayfair was the stalker. Or he hired him.”
“Of course, he did. I thought it was Wayfair from the start, from those first phone calls. I should have said something to the judge back then. But today? It was too late. I’m sure Wayfair just intended to put me off balance at first, but once he realized how close you and I really were?
Wayfair set up a trap. He played you like a piano. ”
Max’s face flushed with shame. “You’re absolutely right. This is on me. I’ll write to Judge Vaughn, apologize, and try to explain. I’ll tell her she can’t blame you for this.”
She covered her eyes with her hand. “You think she’d listen? The judge thinks I told you to lie at the previous hearing about our relationship. She made a finding that I acted in bad faith. We know I didn’t do that, but this is still my fault as much as anyone’s.”
“Why?”
She just shook her head.
He wished that Lana would yell at him. Get angry. Scream. But she wasn’t. She was just sitting there, talking to him quietly but calmly. Maybe it was shock. Or maybe it was the opposite. Maybe some part of her wasn’t surprised at all.
“I’m going to appeal,” Lana said. “I’ve got a decent argument that the judge abused her discretion.
She should’ve let me present evidence, or at least required Wayfair to prove his claim that I acted in bad faith.
I’m hoping the appellate court will remand the case back to Judge Vaughn for a formal hearing.
If that happens, I need you to testify about our side of the story.
Just put it all out there. Our relationship and everything that Wayfair did. ”
Max took the full first full breath he’d had in the last hour. “Okay, yeah. I’ll do whatever you say.”
He glanced at her side-on and caught the skepticism that passed across her expression.
Max reached over and put his hand on her leg. “We are not giving up yet. I’m going to help you fix this.”
She crossed her leg, pulling away from him. “I can’t talk about it anymore right now. I have to think about what I’m going to say to Claire.”
Max pulled up to the address Lana had given him. He parked at the curb and turned off the engine. “Can I come up with you?”
“No. This was my trial, my responsibility. I shouldn’t have…”
She trailed off, but Max felt in his bones what she’d been about to say.
I shouldn’t have trusted anyone else with this. Shouldn’t have trusted you.
She got out of the car, not sparing him a single glance on her way to Claire Barnes’s building.