Chapter 32
Jalen wrung her wrist as she sat on the bench, waiting to go inside.
Their court time wasn’t for another thirty minutes, but they’d shown up early.
She’d told all of her sisters about the situation after Landon’s birthday, and she’d done her best to explain to the twins exactly what was happening.
None of them were happy about the situation, and the possibility of them being separated devastated Nathan and Omari.
Seeing her younger sisters so upset reinforced Jalen’s disgust with their egg donor because no parent should put any of their children through something like this when they were living in a loving environment.
She assured them she was going to do everything in her power to keep them from getting separated. The same way she had years ago. And while kidnapping was illegal, she wasn’t opposed to it if her sisters were taken from her.
The summons requested that the children involved in the custody hearing be brought in case the judge wanted to ask them some questions.
However, the rest of her sisters had insisted on coming as well, and Jalen knew that trying to tell them it would be best to go to school was no use. So, she’d allowed them to come along.
Rohan took her hand and stopped her from messing with her wrist. She looked at him, and he said nothing, just kissed her forehead. She knew he wouldn’t tell her to calm down because they both knew it would be a futile effort on his part. Though she took a deep breath.
When she turned her attention to the other end of the hall, she saw Meila approaching them. She took the seat on the other side of Jalen.
“All the character witnesses are here. They’re in the waiting room beside the courtroom we’ll be in. You’ve got some good ones,” Meila told her. “Though I would have preferred not to see one.” Jalen watched as Meila threw a glare at Rohan.
Her boyfriend held his hands up in surrender. “He wanted to help in whatever way he could. So, he’s here. Don’t blame me.”
She knew they were talking about Trent. Rohan had come to her asking if she had an issue with him telling his brother what was going on because Trent and Meila had a rocky history.
He didn’t want them to bump into each other, and for Trent to be surprised.
Jalen hadn’t minded, and from what she’d understood, Trent had been less concerned that Meila would be her lawyer and more concerned about how he could help.
When he told her Trent wanted to help, she remembered Meila had said character witnesses would help, so she’d asked him to be one.
Though she hadn’t known him long, it never hurt.
Vivian was also a character witness, along with Maria, Vega, and Ms. Henley, the twins’ teacher.
Meila informed her that having one of her sisters testify, aside from the twins, would be helpful.
Kodi hadn’t blinked an eye when she’d told them there was no way she wouldn’t want to be the one to do so, since she’d been a part of everything that happened to them with their mother from the beginning.
Jalen exhaled as she thought about her childhood. She had disclosed little of it to Rohan and Meila, other than that her mother had been absent. However, there was more, and she felt she should at least give them a heads-up.
“So, when Kodi and I get on the stand, some things may come up that we haven’t discussed if asked,” Jalen told them.
“Things like?” Meila inquired with a raised brow.
“Until Kodi was about nine, Valerie would physically abuse us whenever something didn’t go her way. When she was around,” Jalen told them.
The two of them said nothing for a moment, but she felt Rohan squeeze her hand.
Valerie had slapped her and Kodi around for whatever she could think of.
As she got older, Jalen figured it had been because she and Kodi reminded Valerie of whoever their father was and the fact that maybe Valerie had loved him, and he hadn’t wanted her.
Or maybe whenever she got rejected, she took it out on them because it meant she was forced to be at home with them and not out manipulating whoever she’d tried to sink her claws into.
After meeting Vega, she realized the former wasn’t the case for Kodi because Vega wanted to be with Valerie; it was she who hadn’t wanted to be with him.
Rohan had come to her with his theory that her egg donor knew who their fathers were, even if she was pretending as if she didn’t. Jalen wouldn’t put it past her, and it made sense why she hadn’t sought custody of Mikal after seeing Vega at the birthday party.
“Just you and Kodi?” Meila questioned.
“Yes, we wouldn’t let her near our younger sisters.”
“I believe you. So, don’t think I don’t when I have to ask this, but do you have proof of this?”
“No,” Jalen responded. “As a child, I didn’t think to take pictures, and it was never bad enough to send either of us to the hospital. There is a witness statement that Ms. Ella gave when I first applied for custody. I have it.”
“Why is this bitch not in jail?” Meila asked through clenched teeth.
“When I started getting things together to file for custody, I was eighteen; Kodi was eleven. Any bruises had long healed, and Ms. Ella’s statement couldn’t be classified as proof, really, because she wrote what she believed in her professional opinion happened. She hadn’t witnessed the abuse.”
“And it just stopped when Kodi was nine? Was that when she started staying away longer?” Meila inquired.
“No, it stopped because I was tired of it. She hit my sister, and I hit her until Kodi and Landon were crying. Until I was tired.” Jalen took a deep breath.
“That’s when she started staying away for longer periods, and when I decided, as soon as I could, I’d take my sisters from that environment.
I didn’t like what she’d turned me into because I wanted her gone from the face of this earth, and everything that I kept pent up came out. ”
That was the reason she had been so hellbent on gentle parenting.
She didn’t want to be like her mother. She didn’t want to ever be pushed into the place she had been as a teenager, where her anger got the best of her.
Jalen knew it would never happen with her sisters and wanted to do everything in her power to keep it that way.
When she’d finally tired of Landon’s attitude and mouth, when she’d finally decided that corporal punishment was what her sister clearly needed to understand, to stop throwing the faults on their egg donor on her.
It was with the resolve that, unlike most parents, when they said it hurt them more, it actually did in Jalen’s case.
“I don’t put it past her to bring that up because she went to the hospital, but I don’t think she told them I’d done it because then she’d have to confess to what she had been doing, and by some chance, she got away with it, it meant taking care of the girls herself if I was removed from the house. ”
She squeezed Rohan’s hand tighter. He’d been quiet the entire time, and she wanted to know what he was thinking. She knew that now might not have been the best time to tell him, and she would have preferred to under different circumstances.
However, the decision for Kodi to be a character witness had been just a couple of hours before, and it was then that she realized it might come up. She at least wanted him to hear it from her first. Jalen also knew that it would be best if Meila weren’t surprised by it.
She felt Rohan bring her hand to his lips and place a kiss on it. She leaned into his side as Meila stood, telling them she’d be right back.
“Valerie just gets worse the more I hear,” he said once they were alone.
“Yeah, the only redeeming quality she has is the fact that she could give birth to my sisters and me. It’s the only thing about her I wouldn’t change,” Jalen responded.
Silence fell between the two of them, and she took another deep breath. They had another fifteen minutes before they’d be called in. Meila, approaching them quickly with a bottle of water in her hand, drew Jalen’s attention, and had her raising a brow. The older woman handed Jalen the water.
“Listen, I just saw Valerie. She’s headed this way, and I want you to be prepared,” Meila started. “She’s—”
“Pregnant,” Jalen cut her off as her eyes moved past Meila to where her egg donor was staring at her.
Jalen hadn’t had time to get past the shock of Valerie showing up pregnant.
Not that she should be too shocked. That she and her sisters were alive gave testament to the fact that their egg donor couldn’t keep her legs together.
So much for not wanting to push another little human out, and if she was showing now, then she was already pregnant when she said it.
Thankfully, she hadn’t had to speak to her, as they were called into the courtroom early.
There weren’t many people in the room. Not like there usually was in a criminal case. Jalen and Meila sat at the defendant’s table, with Rohan behind them in the spectator section.
She glanced over to find Valerie sitting with her lawyer, looking like she had nothing to worry about.
From their body language, she guessed that their relationship had gone past attorney and client, and Jalen was not surprised.
She almost thought it might have been Valerie’s husband, but she remembered the photos Vega sent and knew that wasn’t him.
When the judge finally entered, everyone stood, retaking their seats once they had permission to do so. Jalen watched Judge Davis, as he’d been introduced, look over some information in front of him before turning his attention to Valerie.
“Mrs. Hollis-Edwards, you’re here petitioning the court for custody of Nathan Hollis and Omari Hollis from Ms. Jalen Hollis. Is that correct?”
“Yes, Your Honor,” Valerie responded.
“And I see that your relationship to the children in question is their biological mother.”
“That is correct, Your Honor.”