Chapter 17
FEELINGS INVOLVED
King Takes the Stand:
Tense deliberations today in the King v.
Andrews trial. King took the stand in a tearful interview with her attorney Lindsey Toliver, detailing the alleged abuse that she sustained at the hands of the defendant.
The judge called for an early dismissal after one jury member became visibly upset.
Tomorrow Andrew’s team will have the opportunity to cross examine.
This was bad.
I paced around my rent-a-bedroom, fully dressed and ready for court.
I had barely slept the night before because of the stress and was running on nothing but anxiety.
The high from the previous week and all our cute moments was short lived because yesterday was a fucking disaster.
Anybody with eyes could see that Chanel’s ass was up there lying through her teeth, but for some reason, I could tell the jurors ate it up.
I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs and remind them that she was an actress, and she was lying, but I didn’t need to get a contempt of court charge before I had the chance to cross examine her conniving ass.
This was the first time during this trial that I felt like we could possibly lose, and while I hated the thought professionally, the thought of what it would do to Chase and his family had me seeing red.
He did his best to maintain an image that his young fans could look up to, and he didn’t have to try hard because he was genuinely a good person.
The fact that she could do this to him without a care in the world made me fucking sick.
“You know what you have to do,” I whispered to myself softly as I stared in the mirror.
New Details Emerge in King vs Andrews Trial:
Day two of Chanel King's testimony. Today the plaintiff was cross examined by the defense team.
Head attorney Amaya Lewis took a drastically more aggressive approach, citing claims of drug use and abuse against the plaintiff, and bringing new evidence to light.
After a tense standoff that ended with the plaintiff in tears, the judge demanded a recess so the plaintiff could go over new information with her attorney.
I could literally feel the anger radiating from him the entire time we walked to the cars.
I knew he was pissed when he hopped in his own car, and had the driver pull off, leaving the rest of us to squeeze five people in the back of one SUV.
We all sat there in silence as the truck took us to his house for our routine debriefing.
“Well… I think that went well,” Joce said awkwardly.
“Yeah,” I whispered, trying to get the way he looked at me out of my head—a mix of anger, disappointment, and hurt.
I kept my mouth shut for the entire drive, disappearing into my head and thinking of every worst case scenario.
When we pulled up to the house, I considered hopping in our car and driving the fuck off.
Then I remembered that my name was Amaya Motherfuckin’ Lewis, and my mama ain’t raise no hoe.
I held my head up and walked inside with the others, but when I saw the wild look in his eyes, I immediately wished I had run away.
“What the fuck was that?” he asked once the door was closed and there was no possible way for me to make a quick escape. His eyes landed directly on me and even though my ass was already fun-sized, I felt two feet shorter.
“I was doing my job,” I said softly hoping that somehow, I could deescalate the situation.
“We discussed that shit Amaya. We agreed not to take that route,” he said, looking at me like I betrayed him. She was the one trying to ruin his life, but I was wrong?
“We didn’t agree to shit! I told you from the jump that this was the best route, and that if it even looked like we might lose, I was bringing it out.”
“Without even consulting me? This is what you do?”
“Are you mad that I brought it up, or mad that I didn’t consult with you first?” I wanted to ask if he was mad that I exposed his precious Chanel, but I played it cool and kept my mouth shut.
“Both! You didn’t say shit to me because you knew I would have turned that down! I already told you that I didn’t want to air her out like that! She’s fucked up for this, but she’s sick!”
“I don’t give a fuck how sick she is! She’s trying to ruin your life, Chase! What part of that are you not getting?”
“The part where we had an agreement! We decided not to take that route, but you’re so fuckin’ stubborn and hell bent on ‘winning’ that you have no loyalty!”
I had never seen him so angry—not even when he punched his deadbeat ass daddy in the face.
This was different, it was a silent fire that literally had his body vibrating with rage.
Even still, I didn’t feel the least bit threatened, further proving that Chanel’s allegations were all bogus.
So, the fact that I was deserving of all this when she could do whatever she wanted because she was “sick” blew my fucking mind.
“I’m unloyal? Fuck you Chase! I didn’t do any of this so I would win!
I did it so you wouldn’t lose everything you worked your ass off for!
But, clearly she means more to you than yourself, your legacy, all this other shit you were trying to build?
Got it!” I yelled. His eyes snapped to mine, immediately catching what I really meant.
His fire extinguished instantly, but the damage was done. We both knew what I wasn’t saying.
She means more to you than I do.
“No, Amaya, she doesn’t, but you have to understand…
” As his voice died off, I looked around at the silent room at everyone’s wide eyed stares locked on us like we were prime time TV.
Who could blame them? We were having a fucking lover’s quarrel in a room full of people. I immediately shut my mouth.
“That’s fine. You don’t like my tactics—I’m done. Let Justin finish it out. Unless you do some more really dumb shit again, it should be in the bag.” I ranted as I gathered up my stuff. “Screamin’ in my face over a fuckin’ crackhead who got you fucked up! Nigga, fuck you!”
“You’re done?” He frowned. “Done, like how?”
“In every way that matters!” I said, looking him dead in his eyes to get my point across.
“Goodbye, and good luck!” I snapped before turning around, grabbing my bag, and walking out, not even waiting to see if Joce was behind me.
By the time I got to the car, she was running to catch up and calling my name.
“Amaya… Girl, what the fuck was that?”
“I-I don’t fucking know!” I rocked on my heels and tried to fight the tears forming in my eyes.
“Come on.” She grabbed the keys from me and ushered me into our car without another word.
She never once asked me what happened, not when I went to the house and packed my shit, or when I booked a flight home.
She just sat beside me every step of the way as we traveled back to New Dawn early the next morning.
“Lewis, what are you doing here?”
My eyes blinked slowly as I retreated from my own thoughts, clearing my throat and taking a beat before I spoke again.
“I’m recusing myself from the Andrew’s case,” I said, barely above a whisper as I stood in front of Oliver with my hands clasped together.
So much had happened recently that I’d forgotten all about the bullshit phone call, but standing in front of him, it all came back.
I did my best to control my body trembles as fought tears and the urge to cuss him smooth out and slap the fuck out of him.
I tucked it all away for the greater good.
“What? Why would you do that?!” he demanded.
“Everything is done. All that’s left is closing statements, and Mr. Harper is more than capable of handling that.
Per our contract, I completed over 90% of the trial, so there shouldn’t be any loss of compensation.
I had to come back home for personal reasons.
” He looked at me like he wanted to call me every name in the book, and if he did, if he even slipped up once, I swore to God and all my ancestors that I was putting hands on his ass.
Then the frown melted from his face, as he seemingly had some sort of epiphany.
“I hope you’re aware that this could drastically affect your chance at making partner,” he said with a wickedly pleased smile on his face, like this was what he wanted all along.
“That’s fine,” I said with a blank stare. “If there’s nothing else, I need to take personal leave for the rest of the day.” When he didn’t answer, I simply turned and walked out, holding my breath until I had retrieved my purse and made it to the elevator. I needed my best friend.
An hour later, I sat in Mona’s pink ass living room as she cried about some huge fight she had with Tahmir.
I let her vent, but knew that man loved her way too much to let their story end like that.
If there was no hope for them, there was really no hope for anyone, because they were damn near perfect together.
I tried to keep my straight face on and be supportive, but the moment she was able to calm herself down was when I lost my shit, scaring the hell out of her when I burst out into tears.
“May… What happened?” she asked with concern as she stared into my tear-filled eyes.
“I fucked up!” I cried, words coming out in uncontrollable hiccups as my tears got the best of me.
“Tell me what happened,” she urged softly. I held my pinky up and she instantly looped hers through it, swearing herself to secrecy.
“Chanel is on drugs. She was actually the abusive one in their relationship. When he finally had enough and left her for good, she orchestrated this whole case to try to ruin him.”
“How do you know this?”