Chapter 42
Chapter Forty-Two
Joshua Caplan would make history after all.
His trial would be the trial used for decades to explain why prosecutors should not have personal connections to anyone in the cases they try.
The legal blunder of the era. It must’ve been humiliating.
News anchors across networks seemed to relish in the unprofessionalism of the spectacle he put on, playing his outbursts about Lauren over and over and over, making him look like a mad man.
“Let us remind the viewers that the case has nothing to do with the Florida prosecutor’s daughter,” a female news anchor informed, shaking her head a little before a muted version of Joshua Caplan screaming in court flashed across the screen.
“Jenna, I don’t think we’re talking about Kain Montgomery enough,” the male anchor beside her added.
“At just twenty-one years old, the pre-law Florida State University senior held his own against a seasoned law veteran, issuing accurate objections for his own questioning. A law career may have crashed and burned today, but one has certainly risen from the ashes. We’re all very eager to see where the young man goes in life. ”
“Lest you all forget, the young man’s father, Silas Montgomery, who won his trial today is still behind bars tonight, awaiting trial for an alleged shooting of Joshua Caplan’s daughter sometime next year.
Silas Montgomery remains the only suspect in the shooting, and in true Romeo and Juliette fashion, Joshua Caplan’s daughter just so happened to be in a serious relationship with our young future lawyer.
Kain Montgomery was the one who called the paramedics for her at the time of her shooting. Isn’t that absolutely crazy?”
“The plot thickens!”
“You’re absolutely right, Dave.” Jenna smiled brightly at her partner as if they were reading off such a lighthearted story. “It’s a pity that law school is a four-year commitment. If Silas Montgomery had his son defending his next case, that would’ve been a saga for the ages.”
“You’re getting ahead of yourself here, Jenna. Kain is a college senior this upcoming fall and according to some sources, he hasn’t even taken the LSAT yet, much less applied to any schools.”
“Well, I know one thing is for sure, Dave. After what happened this morning, Kain Montgomery is going to have the law schools sending him all the love calls, not the other way around. Viewers, we’ve put a poll up on our Twitter page. Where do you think Kain Montgomery should go to law schoo—”
I changed the channel, opting for a more local news cast. A reporter was standing just outside of Jackson Memorial Hospital, and my posture straightened up, bringing up the remote to raise the volume of the story being told.
“Yes, we’re just now being told by staff within the hospital that after just about two weeks on life support, Lauren Caplan, nineteen-year-old daughter of disgraced Miami prosecutor Joshua Caplan, is breathing on her own.
There’s no word on whether or not she’s risen from her drug-induced coma, but the IV bags that had been delivering her medications have been removed.
It should only be an hour or so before she comes to. ”
The field report cut to a studio where a lone anchor sat behind a desk and continued with the story.
“These new installments come less than twenty-four hours after a distraught Joshua Caplan, likely overcome with grief, completely crashed his trial in a Miami-Dade courthouse early this morning against Silas Montgomery, Lauren’s accused attempted murderer.
A staple in the South Florida law community, many people who know Joshua Caplan best say that the pain over having his daughter on life support is likely what caused the courthouse blunder.
We hope that with the reunion of father and daughter, justice can continue to be served efficiently in Miami-Da—Breaking News! ”
A shot of the field report cut into the studio feed. My heartrate sped up.
“Lauren Caplan has reportedly opened her eyes! Lauren Caplan is finally awake.”
***
Love will make you do dumb things.
It was two days after Lauren woke up when I decided to pay her a visit.
I knew not to go there with expectations of actually seeing her.
There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that she believed that Silas was the person who shot her in cold blood, so it didn’t surprise when I learned that I was the only person on her don’t-let-through list. Now that she was awake, there really wasn’t much my sister Monique could do to get me in that room without truly jeopardizing her job.
I understood that Lauren needed to heal, so I didn’t force myself in her space.
Instead, I told myself that she couldn’t shut me out forever.
I was wrong.
One week to the day that Lauren came back, after seven days of no contact, I woke up to a banging at my door.
Silas was being held at the local prison, awaiting trial for Lauren’s shooting, and I’d finally gotten around to giving Vance the house in Pembroke Pines.
So I was at the big house alone that day.
I don’t know what I was expecting when I heard the loud knocking at the door from my room that morning.
I’d be lying if I said a little part of me didn’t have some hope that when I opened it, Lauren would be standing at the other side, ready to hear my side of the story.
Of course it wasn’t her.
On the other side of the front door was a uniformed police officer, standing stocky and stiff at the door’s threshold.
Visibly, his neck craned ever so slightly in an effort to catch a glimpse at the inside of the house behind me—the infamous house of Silas Montgomery.
I cleared my throat once, urging him to state his reason for being here.
Was I under arrest? Was I needed for questioning?
None of that. Instead, from behind his back, the pale officer pulled a large manila envelope visible. I was being served papers.
“Kain Montgomery?” He confirmed my identity as a formality no doubt, ‘cause there was no way he didn’t already know. There wasn’t a person in this city who didn’t know who I was. When I nodded a confirmation, he extended the envelope into my hands, and I shut the door.
I’d walked with the envelope to the kitchen, both wanting to know immediately what was inside and wanting to know nothing at all.
It wasn’t until I’d brewed and poured myself a cup of coffee that I took a seat at the kitchen island, and began to peel back the adhered seal.
There was only one sheet of paper inside, a legal document with Lauren’s signature at the bottom.
A restraining order.
If nothing else, I wasn’t surprised. Lauren believed Silas was the person behind her shooting, and I didn’t have a doubt in my mind that the first thing Joshua Caplan updated her on upon her waking up was the scene I’d made in court last week.
To her, it must’ve felt like between her and my father, I had chosen my father.
Joshua Caplan didn’t just shoot his daughter. He lied about it. He tried to use it to his advantage. And he didn’t even seem remorseful. To tell Lauren the truth, was to make her aware of the extent her father was willing to go to come out on top—even if that meant killing her.
I knew that believing I’d betrayed her must’ve been hurting Lauren at that moment, and despite my ability to put an end to that belief, I made the decision to stand down. Why? Because telling her wouldn’t take away the pain she was feeling at all. In fact, it might just make it worse.
Love makes you do dumb things.
How do I know? Because I looked at that sheet of paper for at least an hour, knowing deep down that if I could somehow tell Lauren the truth, that paper would become meaningless.
But I wouldn’t do that. Because how do you tell someone that their own father shot them in cold blood?
Accidentally or not, Joshua Caplan shot his daughter, and if I found some way to tell Lauren everything I knew, I could rip up the restraining order quick, but I would be ripping her heart to shreds as well.
And under the influence of love—and stupidity, probably—the thought of breaking Lauren’s heart in that way was more unbearable than the pain of my own heart breaking.
So I put the paper back in its envelope, finished my coffee, and decided to respect her wishes.