Cheers To Comeuppance
Chapter 41

Third Person

“Doc, you got to go,” Leon gently said as he gently pushed Annika away from him.

When morning came the next day, true to his word, Leon escorted Annika back to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport bright and early, where his private jet was waiting to take Annika back to New York. And true to Annika’s word, she was attempting to avoid leaving at all costs, knowing what would be waiting for her when she got home.

“No, just a few more minutes,” Annika pleaded as she straddled Leon and continued to smother him with k****s. Within 72 hours, Annika’s life had wholly done a 180-degree turn. She fully separated from Jeffrey, her cheating bastard of a husband, gave into her feelings for Leon, slept with him, antagonized said ex-husband, and was now on the brink of facing her family’s wrath because of her choices. “Leon, make love to me,” she whispered seductively and kissed his neck. Leon was beginning to gain an e******n, and he knew that if he didn’t get her out of the car, he would take her right then and there like some wild animal.

“Doc, as much as I would love to do that, you have to go.”

“Please,” she continued to beg and started to grind herself against him.

“Anni, no!” Leon rejected her sternly and pushed her away by grasping her shoulder firmly.

“You’re no fun,” she pouted and removed herself from his lap.

“Doc, go. My pilot is waiting, and you can’t keep avoiding this. Plus, you really should get back to the clinic.”

“Kenzie can handle things without me,” Annika countered.

“Be that as it may, you should get back to your life. You’re a kickass doctor who has a lot of people counting on you.”

“Says the man who invited me on this trip in the first place!” Annika backfired.

“I needed to confirm that you felt the same about me as I do you, baby. And now that I have, I can rest easy and get my work done without being too distracted.”

“Yeah, well, now that we’ve confirmed my feelings towards you, you’re sending me into the lion’s den, and now I have to be separated from you for a week! What am I supposed to do whenever I think about you and your God-given assets!?” Leon couldn’t help but chuckle at Annika’s antics and cupped her cheeks. He gently placed a chaste k**s on her lips before opening the door and dragging her out against her wishes. Annika gave in, knowing she couldn’t fight it anymore and reluctantly allowed Leon to walk down the tarmac to his jet. Her feet felt as if they weighed a ton. The only solace Annika had was that it would take several hours to get to New York from Dallas.

When they made it to the staircase of his jet, Leon gently nudged Annika by the small of her back to board the aircraft. Annika planted her feet and stared up at Leon defiantly in hopes that she could persuade him to allow her to stay. She knew that it would be futile, and her actions made it seem as if she were an immature teenager defying her parents; however, this was the first time in her life that Annika didn’t want to be obedient or responsible. Not after everything that she had just experienced.

She had spent her entire life being obedient and pretending to be someone else to prove that money wasn’t everything, but seeing as how she was proven wrong, she wanted to be herself, or the self that she had to lock away to become who she was in this present time. The last thing she wanted was to be Dr. Annika Hollands. She wanted to be Annika Silverton—billionaire heiress.

“Anni, stop being like this. A week will by before you know it. Plus, there’s a lot to prepare for the upcoming court date. You need to talk to Hunter and your family’s attorneys.” Annika hated that Leon was being so responsible and bossy. She’d rather he be the spontaneous Leon that sent her early morning text messages to jump on a jet and go on vacation. As if reading her mind, Leon chastised her some more, “I know this isn’t what we originally planned for, but I think this is for the best. Once everything we’re fighting is over and done with, we will go on an actual vacation together, okay?” he tried to soothe her. Annika scowled but nodded in understanding in the end.

She and Leon embraced one another one final time and kissed each other passionately before he again had to push her away and nudge her up the jet’s stairs. After boarding and waving goodbye to her new lover, Annika made the flight to New York, where she now had to face the wrath of Beau Silverton. She texted Huxley that she was on her way home and would call when she landed for a ride. After seeing that the message was read, she powered off her phone to avoid any scrutiny from her eldest brother and decided to get some sleep. She calmed her beating heart and fell into a deep slumber.

Back at the penthouse, Huxley received Annika’s text and read it out loud to his family, “Baby Bear is on her way back. She said it would be several hours and would call for a ride when she lands.”

“I can’t believe you guys ruined her much-needed vacation with her new … Uh … Whatever Leon is, just so you can yell at her,” Micky grumbled in dissatisfaction from her seat in the living room.

Currently, she and Matthaeus, along with Hunter and the other Silverton attorneys, were sitting around going over all of the documents that Hunter had brought over for the divorce hearing. Hunter was solely in charge of defending Annika for her divorce against Jeffrey, but he and the others felt that some of the evidence could also be used in their civil suit against Jeffrey and Sadie. With Micky’s arrival and her expertise in abuse cases, she wanted to use some of Hunter’s evidence in court for emotional distress. After all, Annika went public when she exposed Jeffrey and Sadie. Annika wouldn’t have resorted to such extreme measures if she were sound of mind. At least, that’s what Micky was saying to the others in the room.

“Micky, darling, that’s a risky stretch; even you can’t deny that,” her husband grimaced.

“Even so, it’s still the truth. Everybody in this room is an expert witness in the fact that we all know Anni best. She was pushed into a corner with that fucker’s lying, cheating, gaslighting, and manipulative tactics. Why else would she do something so public? At the mistress’s birthday party, no less?” Micky countered. “Annika Noelle Silverton is not an individual that resorts to petty revenge unless pushed past her limits. We all know that.”

“Jeff is going to appeal to that in court, McKenna. He’s going to manipulate the evidence in that sense because he can say that Annika is mentally unstable or that she stalked him to the party,” one of the family lawyers advised.

“He can’t,” Hunter stated while digging through his laptop computer. “Ah, here it is,” he said, turning the screen so everyone else could see what he had found. It was a video of the said birthday party, and he hit play. Everyone watched closely, and sure to his confidence that Jeffrey couldn’t claim stalking, a snippet of Mr. Galloway admitting to inviting Annika to the party played back.

“Thank God for the internet and nosey-a*s people!” McKenna exclaimed.

“Counselor Malloy, former D.A. Hollands, can still claim that it’s stalking because Miss. Silverton was already well aware of his affair with Miss. Galloway prior to this invitation. Your evidence already suggests that. He could also claim that she manipulated the defendant’s father into her inviting her to the party,” a different family lawyer stated as he stopped the video.

“True, but what it doesn’t suggest is that Annika was aware that Mr. Galloway was Sadie’s Galloway’s father. The evidence we have on hand only shows their doctor-patient relationship. His inviting Anni to the party was from gratitude for her services as a health care provider. And according to my wife, it was because he lashed out at Anni and her staff during a routine b***d panel. It was his way of apologizing for his behavior.”

“Hunter, didn’t you say you did a background check on Sadie and her family? Those records would show you knew that Mr. Galloway was her father,” Matthaeus interjected.

“That is also true. But I can argue that I didn’t share this information with Annika. After all, it’s my discretion to share evidence with my client if I deem it relevant to the case.”

“That’s a hard argument to make in court, Hunter, even I know that,” McKenna replied, not liking how Hunter was trying to circumvent the evidence.

“Worst case scenario, I can say that I shared this information with Anni after she and Kenzie were invited to the party,” he countered. Everyone was skeptical that it would hold up in court but decided to go with it, nonetheless. If anything, even if Jeffrey were to defend himself using stalking as a reason to make Annika seem unstable, they could argue that his lies and gaslighting are what caused her to use extreme measures. After all, gaslighting has been around for decades and is a well-known tactic used to get someone to question their personal sanity. In the end, they could plead their case by stating Jeffrey’s actions are what caused Annika to stalk him. Either way, Jeffrey’s evidence, and testimony would more than likely fall apart.

After they spent a few hours combing through all of the evidence and using a Ven diagram to categorize the evidence for the different cases they were going to take on, Huxley’s phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Huxey, I’ll be landing in about 30 minutes. Can either you or Royce come and get me?” Annika’s voice came through the receiver.

“I’m busy, Baby Bear. And Royce is out doing some more recon on that woman.”

“What woman?”

“The one that came with the asshat the other day.”

“Oh, his biological mom?”

“His what!?”

“Royce didn’t tell you!?”

“No! Hold on.” Huxley put his phone on speaker. “Repeat what you just said.”

“That woman, the one Royce is following, she’s Jeffrey’s biological mother.”

“What!?” several voices exclaimed in unison.

“Anni, are you serious!?” Hunter asked while leaning his entire being toward the phone.

“Jorge didn’t give you the file?”

“No. Well, wait, hold on, I did have an email from him that I never got around to,” he replied, grabbed his laptop, and logged into his email. “Oh wait, here it is. I never had a chance to take a look at it. I’ll do that here in a sec, but why don’t you give us the cliff notes version of everything?”

“Sure, but first, I’m landing in 20 minutes; I still need a ride home!”

“I got you, Baby Bear,” McKenna called out.

“Micky!? What? Why are you there?!” Annika furrowed her brows, took a quick glance at her phone in confusion, and then placed it back to her ear.

“I’m on your side, baby sister! I’ll go get you, and you can tell me all the juicy details of his Leon guy!”

“MCKENNA ANGEL!” Matthaeus cried out in dissatisfaction. She paid no heed to her husband as she grabbed her purse, a set of keys from the bowl of many keys by the door, and walked right out the front door. Annika could be heard giggling on the other end of the call.

“Okay, well, your sister is gone. Tells us about this revolutionary replaceing,” Hunter told Annika. Everyone also unknowingly scooted towards the phone to listen to the juicy details. Lawyers, by nature, loved gossip. After all, whether factual or not, gossip was what paid their bills in the end. Though, they would never admit that.

“Well, long story short, Jeff’s dad slept with that woman; I think her name is Pepper or Piper, or something or other when she was only 15 while he was married to Ruth. That led to her getting pregnant with Jeff. Because she was a minor, and Jeff’s dad was obviously well over the age of being an adult, she basically threatened them for her silence on a statutory rape charge.”

“Threatened them with what?” Huxley asked.

“Um, I think something along the lines of taking care of Jeff and raising him as their kid and taking her in and changing her identity to make it seem like she’s a relative or something like that.”

“So, you’re saying this woman is only related to them on paper?” one of the family attorney’s questioned as he had his pen and notebook in hand.

“Yeah. The only relation is that she gave birth to Jack’s bastard son, which in this case is true both literally and figuratively.”

“Hmm, we can use this against them counter suit for slander,” Matthaeus stated while jotting down some notes.

“I agree. Even though the statute of limitations has passed, this information could be detrimental to their family and image. Pristine former D.A. of Manhattan born out of wedlock from statutory rape, the biological mother threatens unsuspecting father for her silence,” another one of the lawyers in the room voiced out with what sounded like excitement. Then again, she was the only other female attorney other than McKenna, so that made sense.

“This is some sensational information, Anni. We’ll all review the file together and see where we can use it.”

“Okay. I’m about to land. See you guys soon!”

“Baby Bear.”

“Yeah, Huxey?”

“Dad’s pissed. Just remember that.” They were met with silence and then three beeps. Huxley looked down and saw that she had hung up without even giving him any response.

“How do you put up with her?” Hunter asked in a joking manner.

“It’s a talent I wish I didn’t have to possess,” he responded while shaking his head, making the entire room roar with laughter. After a few minutes of relieving the tension and enjoying a breath of air from the stress their respective cases were causing them, all of the men and women got back to work. Though Huxley was only a businessman, he did dabble in law before ultimately majoring in business and marketing. Though he was there to delegate everything, his limited knowledge of the law helped him keep the atmosphere reasonably calm and on track to keep everyone going off on random tangents.

McKenna arrived at the airport and waited for Annika by the private jet terminal, knowing that this Leon fellow didn’t fly coach, not with his net worth. McKenna had researched the man the night before because she wanted to get a feel for the man. Who was this gigantic who won her sister’s heart?

She was shocked, to say the least, that he was a self-made real estate tycoon. Though her family was also wealthy, their wealth was old family money passed down from generation to generation. Leon Von Doren, on the other hand, his money was his and his alone. Seeing how young he got started and created his own path that led to him divorcing his father and his step-family caught her by surprise. In a way, Leon was a loner and had no family. What she was even more stunned at was that his surname wasn’t even his father’s. Von Doren was his mother’s surname which he took on after divorcing his family.

“Hi, Micky!” she heard Annika’s voice as she opened the car door. The sisters hugged each other after not seeing one another in so long.

“Alright, missy, I’m going to take the long way home. And I want you to spill all of the tea; you got me?”

“The Tea? Micky, no one uses that phrase anymore,” Annika teased her older sister, insinuating that she was old.

“Shut up!” McKenna bellowed and shoved Annika, making her laugh. “Hurry up and tell me; I want to know everything!” Seeing her older sister’s excitement, Annika spilled the tea, as her sister had phrased, and she spared no detail. Annika revealed how they met, how they started to work with each other, down to the very last detail of their newfound relationship, and the fantastic s****l relations they shared before she was called back for a stupid decision to be petty. McKenna’s reaction to everything was anything and everything from laughter, shock, anger, and even arousal.

They were too focused on gossip that they made it back to the penthouse faster than anticipated, but that didn’t stop them from continuing their gossip as they ascended to the penthouse floor. Sure enough, they were too immersed in their conversation, and Annika spaced on the fact that she was in trouble with her father and brothers. That was until they walked through the front door giggling like two little school girls and were met with Beau’s angry gleam.