Chapter 30
DAREK
Gasps filled the courtroom. People half-stood from their seats, craning to see what was happening. The court reporter’s hands froze over her keyboard. Even the bailiff looked shocked.
This was better than any courtroom drama I had ever seen on TV. I always paid lawyers to handle my legal business so I never had to step foot in a courtroom, but damn, I was missing out. It was a whole new world.
Judge Morrison’s gavel came down like a gunshot. Pounding over and over. “Order! I will have order in my courtroom!” She banged it again for good measure. “Everyone sit down and be quiet. The only people who will speak are the ones I explicitly tell to speak. Do I make myself clear?”
The room fell silent except for some residual murmuring.
“I said quiet!” Another bang of the gavel, and the murmuring stopped.
Judge Morrison turned her sharp gaze on Sasha, who was still standing. She looked like she was thinking about snatching the gavel and beating Grant with it.
“Ms. Gentry,” the judge said, her voice dangerously calm. “Would you care to explain why you just assaulted a man in my courtroom?”
Sasha’s lawyer was trying to pull her back into her seat, but she shook him off.
“Because he lied to me, your honor. Grant was the one who showed me that photograph. He told me it came from security footage at the yacht club, which is what we’ve been saying all along.
And when I saw my child in danger like that—” Her voice cracked.
“I lost my mind. Of course I did. What mother wouldn’t? ”
“Ms. Gentry, please sit down.”
“I know I haven’t been there for my baby,” Sasha continued, the words pouring out now.
“I know I left and I hurt her and I have so much to make up for. But I want to be a good mother. I want to be in her life. And I won’t let her be neglected or put in danger.
That’s why I pushed for sole custody when I saw that photo.
But if it was manipulated, that changes things.
” She turned to glare at Grant. “If someone doctored it to make Darek look bad, then I had nothing to do with it. It had to be Grant.”
The judge let her finish, then turned her attention to Grant, who had gone pale and was looking around like he wanted to disappear through the floor.
“Mr. Waverly,” Judge Morrison said. “How do you respond to these allegations?”
Grant stood slowly, clearly calculating his options.
Finally, he shrugged with a casualness that was completely at odds with the tension in the room.
“Fine. Whatever. I changed the background. Made the water look rougher. That’s all I did.
The rest of the image is real. Darek really was looking away.
Daisie really was leaning over. I just… enhanced the danger. ”
“Liar!” Liza burst out. “You photoshopped his hand out! Darek was holding on to her the whole time.”
“And you know this how?” The judge looked at me. I knew it wasn’t exactly the way things were done but I didn’t think slapping people was typical, either.
I slowly stood and cleared my throat. “I was holding Daisie’s lifejacket. I’ll admit my attention was on the boat, but I had a firm grip on her. If you look close, you can see where my hand should be. Someone erased it.”
Sasha made a noise and buried her face in her hands. The courtroom erupted again. People were shouting, lawyers were objecting, and my hands clenched into fists. Grant had just admitted to fabricating evidence. He nearly destroyed my life and he was shrugging it off.
“Order!” The gavel came down repeatedly. “I will clear this courtroom if necessary!”
Everyone begrudgingly quieted down, though the energy in the room was electric.
Judge Morrison looked at Grant with an expression of pure disgust. “Mr. Waverly, do you understand that you’ve just admitted to tampering with evidence in a custody case? To committing fraud before this court?”
“I—” Grant seemed to realize the magnitude of what he’d done. “I was just trying to help Sasha. She deserved to know the truth about how Darek treats their daughter.”
“The truth?” I couldn’t help myself. The word exploded out of me. “You fabricated evidence! You nearly cost me custody of my daughter based on a lie!”
“Mr. Sullivan, that’s enough.” Judge Morrison turned her attention back to Grant.
“Mr. Waverly, we’ll be dealing with your fraud in a future hearing.
Criminal charges are likely. I don’t appreciate being lied to.
Neither does the great state of Maine.” She looked down at the papers in front of her, then back up at the courtroom.
“Based on the lack of credible evidence against Mr. Sullivan, and given the glowing home evaluation report, custody will remain unchanged. Daisie Sullivan will continue to reside primarily with her father. This hearing is adjourned.”
The gavel came down one final time, and Judge Morrison stood and left the courtroom.
For a moment, I just sat there, trying to process what had just happened. We won. Daisie was staying with me. The nightmare was over.
Then Liza was there, wrapping her arms around me. I pulled her close, burying my face in her hair. “You did it. You actually did it.”
“We did it,” she corrected. “Together.”
I kissed her, not caring that we were in a courtroom. My little nerd had come through when it mattered most.
But there was still one thing I needed to address. I pulled away from Liza and stormed across the courtroom to where Sasha was standing with her lawyer, Grant hovering uncertainly nearby.
“What the hell is going on?” I demanded. “Sasha, tell me the truth. Did you know about this?”
She turned to face me. I was shocked to see tears streaming down her face. “No. I swear to God, Darek, I had no idea. Grant showed me that photo and told me it came from security footage. I believed him. Why wouldn’t I?”
“You went after sole custody based on one picture?”
“Because I thought our daughter was in danger!” Her voice rose. “What was I supposed to do? I saw that image and I thought you were being negligent. I believed Daisie could have drowned because you were too focused on work. Of course I pushed for custody.”
“But you were happy to use it,” Grant interjected.
Sasha whirled on him. “Because I thought it was real!” She shook her head. “You know what? We’re done. You and me. We’re done.”
“Sasha—”
“Get away from me. I can’t believe I let you anywhere near my daughter. I can’t believe I trusted you.”
Grant’s face darkened. “You were happy enough when I showed you that picture. You didn’t ask too many questions about where I got it or whether it was legitimate. You just ran with it because it gave you ammunition against Darek.”
“Because I thought it was real,” Sasha repeated. She looked at me, pleading with her eyes. “I didn’t know it was doctored. But Grant’s right that I didn’t question it as much as I should have. I wanted to believe the worst about you, and that made me careless.”
The admission surprised me. Sasha had never been good at taking responsibility for her actions.
“I only wanted joint custody until I saw that photo,” she continued. “After that, I convinced myself you were a bad father. But I was wrong. I can see that now.”
I looked at her and saw genuine remorse. It didn’t erase the past three years. Didn’t undo the damage she’d done by leaving. But it was something.
Before I could respond, Grant tried to leave. I stepped in front of him.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“This is done. I admitted to changing the background. What more do you want?”
“What I want is for you to understand what you’ve done.
You tried to take my daughter from me. You fabricated evidence and committed fraud and nearly destroyed my family.
So here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to destroy you in court.
Civil suit for damages, defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
I am going to pay my lawyers a lot of money to get very creative.
By the time I’m done with you, Grant, you’ll be bankrupt.
Get ready, pal. Because I’m coming for everything you have. ”
Grant’s face went from red to pale. “You can’t do that.”
“Watch me.” I stepped aside. “Now get out of my sight.”
He left, practically running from the courtroom. I turned back to Sasha.
“I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “Not just about the photo. About all of it. About leaving, about staying away, about making this a fight when it didn’t need to be.
” She looked past me to where Liza was waiting.
“You have a beautiful family now. Daisie clearly loves both of you. And I know I have no right to ask for anything, but I want to know my daughter.”
“You want to be in her life,” I said with resignation.
“Yes. I know I can’t just walk back in and expect things to go back to how they were. But maybe… maybe we could start small? Supervised visits, just an hour here and there? Let Daisie get to know me again at her own pace?”
I wanted to say no. I longed to tell her she had lost that right when she walked away. But I thought about what Liza had said. Daisie deserved the chance to have a relationship with her mother if she wanted one.
“I’ll think about it,” I said. “But, Sasha, if you hurt her again, I will make sure you never get near her again.”
“I won’t. I promise. I know I have a lot to prove and a lot to make up for. But I want to try. She deserves a mother who actually shows up.”
“She does,” I agreed.
We stood there awkwardly for a moment.
“I should go,” Sasha said finally. “Congratulations on the win. Really. Daisie is lucky to have you.”
I returned to Liza and my legal team, who were all grinning.
“That was the most dramatic hearing I’ve had in fifteen years of practice,” Aaron said. “Whale migration patterns. Who would have thought?”
“Liza would have thought,” I said, pulling her close again. “She’s brilliant.”
“I’m just glad it worked,” Liza said. “I had a moment of panic when I thought I had completely tanked everything by standing up and shouting.”
“You saved everything,” I corrected.
“Thank you,” she murmured.
“Come back to the house,” I said to Aaron and Brittany. “Bring the whole team. Let’s celebrate. And maybe you can tell me what legal grounds I have to go after Grant.”
That made Aaron grin. “Oh, trust me, we have plenty of ideas.”
“I’ll see you there,” I said. “I need to go find my daughter.”
Liza and I left them and stepped into the hall. Daisie and Melody were playing on Melody’s phone.
Daisie saw me. Her eyes filled with worry. She didn’t know exactly what was going on, but I knew she understood it was serious.
She ran to me. I scooped her up and hugged her close. “Everything is okay,” I said. “We’re going to be okay.”
“You’re not mad anymore?”
I laughed. “No. I’m very happy. Everything in there went great. We’ll talk later because right now, we need to get home. We’re going to have a celebration party!”
“A party?”
“Yep. Melody, I would love for you to come by.”
“I wouldn’t miss it,” Melody beamed.
As we walked out of the courthouse into the bright afternoon sun, I felt lighter than I had in months. The nightmare was over. Daisie was safe. She was mine. I knew there would be a lot of tough decisions ahead, but for now, it was going to be okay.