Chapter 32 #2
Jalen watched him look over the paperwork in front of him again before turning his attention to her.
“Ms. Hollis, you currently have full custody of the children, and you are their sister, correct?”
“That is correct, Your Honor.”
“It says here you’ve had custody of them for almost five years, and they are six now?”
“Yes, Your Honor,” Jalen responded.
“Why is that?” Judge Davis inquired.
“Valerie has never been much of a parental figure. She would come and go as she pleased. Even when she was there, I raised my sisters. So, when I was eighteen, I petitioned for full custody of all five of them. Valerie never responded to the summons, and I was given custody when I was nineteen.”
Jalen watched as Judge Davis wrote some notes, nodding at her response before he turned his attention to Valerie.
“Is this true, Mrs. Hollis-Edwards?”
“Your honor, I was the best mother that I could be to my girls. Did I need a break now and then? Yes, but what parent doesn’t?”
Jalen refrained from rolling her eyes because here Valerie was, outright lying to the judge.
She may have needed a break, but those breaks spanned months and then a year or more at a time.
Valerie was also in no way the best mother she could be when she was around.
Her good parenting was only extended to them when she wasn’t around.
“We’ll circle back to this. Ms. Hollis, I hear that you have quite a few character witnesses here on your behalf?”
“Yes, Your Honor,” Jalen responded.
“Counselor, you have the floor,” Judge Davis informed Meila.
“Thank you, Your Honor. I’d like to call Lauren Henley to the stand.”
Over the next forty-five minutes, Jalen listened to Ms. Henley, Vega, Trent, Vivian, and Maria give their character statements and answer questions Meila and Valerie’s lawyer posed to them.
Jalen knew what he was doing when he kept trying to trip them up or ask them questions where he thought the answer would make her look bad.
“Your Honor, I’d like to call my final character witness to the stand, Kodi Hollis,” Meila said. A moment later, her little sister walked into the courtroom and took a seat. “Kodi, will you state your relation to Jalen and Valerie?” Meila asked.
“Jalen is my older sister and guardian. Valerie gave birth to me.”
“She’s your mother?” Meila confirmed.
“She gave birth to me,” Kodi repeated.
“Can you tell us how long Jalen has taken care of you?”
Jalen watched Kodi shrug. “Since I was old enough to remember.”
Meila nodded. “Can you tell us what it was like growing up in a household with Valerie?”
“I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy,” Kodi started. “Jalen and I were always screamed at about something. Hit for one reason or another. For a child, not knowing if breathing in the wrong direction was going to get you slapped across the face was terrifying.”
“You’re saying it was an abusive environment?” Meila questioned.
“Yes.”
“For all of you?”
“No,” Kodi responded, shaking her head. “Just Jalen and me, mostly. Landon got yelled at sometimes, but Valerie didn’t put her hands on anyone but the two of us.”
“Why do you think that is?” Meila asked.
“I don’t think. I know it’s because we protected them from it. Jalen protected us from it.”
“How long did this go on?” Meila inquired.
“Until I was nine.”
“And why did it stop?”
Jalen watched Kodi glance at her, and she gave her sister a reassuring smile.
She didn’t regret what happened because it let Valerie know she wouldn’t take her shit and allow her to keep putting her hands on them, to keep abusing them.
It turned the situation in a new direction because it caused Valerie to stay away.
“Jalen fought back, and the outcome wasn’t in Valerie’s favor.”
Meila nodded. “She fought back to protect you.”
“Yes, and if she hadn’t, I don’t know what any of us would be like today.”
“Thank you, Kodi,” Meila said with a smile.
“Kodi, you’ve made accusations of abuse against my client, but there have been no charges filed against her. There’s no proof of what you’re saying. Just he said, she said,” Valerie’s lawyer stated. “Couldn’t it be that you were misbehaving as a child, and you were being disciplined?”
Kodi raised a brow at the question. “Do you know that the first thing a guilty person does is blame the victim with misconstrued hypothetical questions?” Kodi questioned in lieu of an answer.
“And unfortunately for you, counselor, my sister taught me to stand my ground and never back down from my truth. Even in the face of those who would do anything to discredit me. So, I’m not about to let you sit here and try to gaslight me on this stand because you think I’m a child that doesn’t know you’re doing it. ”
“Your Honor?” Valerie’s lawyer questioned as if he were shocked at being called out.
“Thank you, Ms. Hollis. That will be all,” Judge Davis said.
“Yes, Your Honor,” Kodi responded, standing, but she paused. “If I could just point out that Valerie has been absent from the twins’ lives almost since the day they were born. I don’t even think they know what she looks like, and I feel that speaks to her character as a parent.”
“Thank you, Kodi,” Judge Davis responded with a nod. “Counselor?” he then questioned, attention on Meila.
“We have no more witnesses, Your Honor,” she replied.
Judge Davis turned his attention to Valerie and her lawyer.
“We have no character witnesses to call,” the opposing counsel supplied.
“I’m curious about the validity of Kodi’s claim,” Judge Davis said. “Do you feel your children know you, Mrs. Hollis-Edwards?”
“Of course, Your Honor,” Valerie responded, and Jalen bit her tongue to keep from scoffing.
“I’d like to see for myself,” Judge Davis replied.
He pointed to three women in the audience and asked them to come forward with their chairs. He instructed them to sit on the plaintiff’s side, across from the bailiff, and directed Valerie to move her chair there as well. All four women were sitting beside each other, and all were women of color.
“I want to speak to the children first, and then we’ll see if you’re correct,” Judge Davis informed Valerie.
Nathan and Omari were brought into the courtroom a minute later, and Judge Davis came off the bench to meet them. He knelt down on one knee in front of them.
“Hi there,” he greeted.
“Hi!” Nathan responded enthusiastically. While Omari waved with a smile.
“I have a few questions to ask you. You think you can answer them for me?” Judge Davis asked, and the girls nodded.
“Can you tell me who you live with?”
“Jalen and Kodi and Landon and Mikal,” Nathan responded.
“Those are our sisters,” Omari added.
“Do you enjoy living with your sisters?” Judge Davis inquired.
“Yes!” both girls answered excitedly.
“What do you like about it?”
“We have picnics at the park and movie nights,” Omari supplied.
“And pajama parties. We make ice cream and cupcakes too,” Nathan answered.
“That sounds like fun,” Judge Davis responded. “Can you tell me what you like most about living with Jalen?”
“She plays with us and reads us bedtime stories,” Nathan responded.
“And she helps us with our homework and goes over our words with us and takes care of us when we’re sick. She’s a nurse, so it’s easy for her,” Omari replied.
“She makes us yummy things for breakfast every morning too!” Nathan continued.
“What about when you’re in trouble? Do you get a spanking?” Judge Davis asked, and the girls shook their heads.
“No, Jalen doesn’t spank,” Omari told him.
“We have to sit in timeout after a warning, and then if timeout doesn’t work, we have to give up one toy we play with a lot for a while,” Nathan explained.
“Do you have to give up toys a lot?”
“No,” Omari responded, shaking her head. “And I only go to timeout sometimes.”
“But Mikal and Landon don’t get timeouts. They get warnings and then no comic books for Mikal and no phone for Landon, and she thinks that the world is ending when that happens because she really likes that phone,” Nathan informed with a little nod that caused soft laughter in the courtroom.
“Jalen says it’s because she’s a teenager, and that’s just how they act,” Omari added.
“But maybe just teenagers Landon’s age, because Kodi’s a teenager, but she doesn’t get in trouble much either,” Nathan supplied.
“Kodi’s an adult,” Omari whispered to Nathan, but she wasn’t good at it, and the entire court heard.
“No, she’s seventeen, and teen means teenager, remember?” Nathan returned.
“Oh, yeah!” Omari responded with a smile and a nod.
Jalen listened to Judge Davis laugh as he stood up. He took her sisters’ hands and led them closer to the plaintiff’s side of the room, their backs to her.
“Do the two of you see your mommy in this room?” Judge Davis asked, and Jalen watched as her sisters nodded. “Okay, can you do something for me? When I let go of your hands, can you go to your mommy?”
“Yes, we can do that,” Nathan responded while Omari nodded.
Jalen watched as Judge Davis let their hands go. It wasn’t even a second before they were turning and skipping to Jalen. She pushed her chair back, and both girls hopped into her lap, and Jalen hadn’t realized she’d begun crying.
“What’s the matter?” Omari asked.
“Are you sick? Does your tummy hurt?” Nathan asked as both little girls wiped at the tears.
“I think this decision is self-evident,” Judge Davis said, and Jalen looked at him.
“Ms. Hollis, you’re free to take your sisters home.
Mrs. Hollis-Edwards, if you’d like to petition for visitation, you have that option, but I wouldn’t recommend the disruption to their routines as they seem to do wonderfully without you. ”
Jalen felt as if she’d been holding her breath the entire time they’d been seated in that room because the weight that lifted from her chest was instantaneous.
Far off, she was sure she heard Valerie’s voice as she protested.
However, she didn’t pay it any mind, and she hugged her sisters tightly.
The sound of the gavel and Meila’s hand on her shoulder had her standing.
Omari had wiggled out of her lap and raised her arms to Rohan, who had been sitting behind her, giving her support the entire time, and Jalen turned with Nathan in her arms as her boyfriend picked Omari up.
“This calls for a celebration,” he told her, and she couldn’t agree more.