Cheers To Comeuppance
Chapter 48

Third Person

Everyone took their seats, and silence filled the courtroom as Judge Trainor got things under way. Annika, along with Hunter, were sitting at the plaintiff’s table, while Jeff, alone, was sitting at the defendant’s table.

“Good morning, everyone,” Judge Trainor greeted. “Today is going to be a long day for all of us. I expect everyone to be on their best behavior. I have no problem with holding anyone in contempt if the rules are not followed. I am well aware of the publicity currently surrounding today’s cases; however, that does not give anyone in this gallery the right to behave irrationally or unethically.” Silence followed as everyone nodded their heads in understanding. “Very good. Let us proceed. Counselor Malloy, the floor is yours.”

“Thank you, Your Honor.” Hunter stood, buttoned his suit jacket, and called his first witness. “I call Annika Silverton to the stand, please.” Annika rose to her feet and made her way to the stand. Before she sat down, the bailiff walked over, and had her raise her right hand.

“Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?”

“I do.”

“You may be seated.” Annika took her seat and interlocked her fingers across her lap as Hunter approached her.

“Ms. Silverton, can you please tell the jury, as well as everyone in the courtroom, why you are here today?”

“I am here because I want to divorce my husband.”

“And for what reasons?”

“Primarily for infidelity.”

“Can you please point him out so that everyone in the courtroom may know who it is you are referring to?”

“Yes. He’s right there. The defendant, Jeffery Hollands.”

“Let the records show that the witness has pointed out the defendant.” After a pause, Hunter continued his questioning. “Ms. Silverton, you claim that your husband, the defendant, was unfaithful during your marriage. Is that correct?”

“Objection!” Jeffery shouted. “Asked and answered!”

“Sustained,” Judge Trainor replied.

“Ms. Silverton, how long were you and the defendant married?”

“Seven years.”

“And when did you come to replace out that he was unfaithful in your marriage?”

“A little over five months ago.”

“Is that how long he had been unfaithful?”

“No. I only found out five months ago of his affairs; however, after doing some investigating, I found out that he had been cheating on me for well over a year,” Annika answered. Voices could be heard mumbling as people threw glances and glares toward Hollands.

“How did you come to replace out that he was cheating on you?”

“My best friend, who is also a colleague, told me.”

“And how did she replace out?”

“She witnessed it with her own eyes and sent me photographic evidence because I didn’t believe her.”

“Your Honor, I’d like to enter into evidence exhibit A!” Hunter stated and provided the evidence that Annika just mentioned to the Judge. He also showed the photographs taken by Kenzie on the T.V. screen next to the jury for everyone to see. “As you can see, the photographs show the defendant, Mr. Hollands, with a female companion, who is not my client.” In the photo, Jeffrey and Sadie could be seen staring longingly into each other’s eyes as they did a love toast with wine glasses. “Ms. Silverton, where is this at?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen this place before.”

“Ms. Silverton, did you ever confront your husband?”

“I did. He swore that he was faithful, and then proceeded to call me crazy.”

“So, not only did he deny it, he also gaslit you?”

“Objection! Hearsay!” Jeffrey bellowed.

“Your Honor, making an individual question their sanity and self-worth is the textbook definition of gaslighting,” Hunter defended.

“I’ll allow it. Objection overruled. Proceed Counselor Malloy.”

“Thank you. Ms. Silverton, as I asked before, Mr. Hollands gaslit you when you confronted him, yes?”

“Yes. Many times, in fact. It was quite traumatizing to be honest.”

“Would you care to elaborate on that?”

“Jeffrey was my entire world for as long as I could remember. We were high school sweethearts. Never in my wildest dreams did I even think he would be capable of cheating. That’s how much faith I had in him. So, when Kenzie sent me those photos, it was like my entire world shattered into a million pieces. I had no idea that it wasn’t something that just happened. When I found out how long it had been going on, I felt so suffocated and heartbroken. I had questioned his faithfulness before I had proof, because I felt that I was seeing the signs. But as mentioned before, he would constantly deny it. I thought maybe I was indeed losing my mind. I knew that, given his work being the former D.A., that he would have a lot on his plate, and have to work late. I understood that. I, myself, am a doctor, and sometimes I’m called at all hours of the night if one of my patients ends up in the hospital for whatever reasons. I felt that my paranoia came from the fact that I was overworked myself, so I believed that he wasn’t lying and that I was making red flags out of nothing. As you can probably imagine, replaceing out that I was right all along was quite the roller coaster of emotions.”

“And when did you first question him?”

“Ummm … Maybe about three months before Kenzie told me.”

“If you had your doubts, why not hire a private investigator?”

“Because I trusted him.”

“I see. Ms. Silverton, do you know the identity of the other woman?”

“Yes.”

“Is she here?”

“Yes.”

“Can you please point her out?”

“Her.” Annika pointed her finger directly at Sadie. “Sadie Galloway.”

“And prior to Mr. Hollands affairs, had you ever met Ms. Galloway before?”

“No.”

“Did you ever confront Ms. Galloway about the affair?”

“Not initially.”

“What do you mean?”

“I didn’t know who she was, so it wasn’t possible for me to confront her at the time.”

“Did you by chance witness the affair firsthand?”

“Unfortunately.”

“When?”

“Not too long after I found out.”

“What did you witness?”

“I saw my husband and Ms. Galloway having s****l relations in his office.”

“And did you confront them?”

“No.”

“What did you do?”

“I took pictures and a video.”

“Your Honor, I’d like to enter into evidence exhibits B and C,” Hunter proclaimed as he showed the evidentiary support that Annika had taken herself. It was the same pictures and video that was shown at Sadie’s birthday party. “We have censored out the private parts to be respectful, but as you can clearly see, Mr. Hollands and Ms. Galloway were indeed having intercourse in his office at the time these were taken. And before anyone can question the legitimacy of these photographs, the date and time are visible on the digital clock in the background. Thus, proving these were not fabricated.”

The jury along with those in the gallery were chattering again when they saw what was practically porn on the T.V. Sadie was fuming with rage as people started to point fingers at her and some went as far to call her a filthy homewrecker out loud.

Netizens who were watching the live stream of the case at home or on their phones were buzzing about and leaving comments left and right. Comments were coming in so fast that it was impossible to read them all; however, most, if not all of them said the same thing.

[Sadie Galloway is a w***e!][I have to give props to Annika for stomaching that and being able to record it. I would have hurled right then and there had this been my husband!][Sadie even knew he was married! How f*****g shameless! I would have barged in and tore her to f*****g shreds if I were Annika!][It’s not only her fault! Jeffrey is also a two-timing bastard! I’d cut off his d**k if he were my husband!][How is Annika so calm about all of this? If I were her, I’d be throwing a fit trying to kill them both!]

Sadie could no longer stand the criticism and insults. “TURN THAT OFF!” She screamed as she jumped to her feet.

“Ms. Galloway, sit down!” Judge Trainor shouted.

“You should all be ashamed! That’s private! How could you show that to everyone here? Don’t you have any morale?”

“Ms. Galloway, I will not tell you again! SIT DOWN AND BE QUIET! Or I will hold you in contempt!” The Judge snarled as he slammed his gavel onto the podium. The officer in charge of Sadie forced her to sit down. “Ms. Galloway, need I remind you that you are also on trial? One more word from you before you are spoken to, and I will have you forcibly removed from my courtroom. You have some nerve talking about shame given your own misdeeds,” Judge Trainor sneered at her in disgust. “Counselor Malloy, please continue.”

“No further questions at this time,” Hunter concluded.

“Very well. Counselor Hollands, your witness.”

“Ms. Silverton?” Jeffrey called out as he approached her. “That is your name, isn’t it?”

“Excuse me?”

“Objection! Badgering the witness!”

“Sustained. Counselor Hollands—”

“I apologize. Ms. Silverton, have you ever used any other surname?”

“Yes,” Annika answered as she glared at Jeffrey because of his blatant attitude. Jeffrey was taken aback by her glare, but shook it off right away.

“What name might that be?”

“Hiller.”

“Any relation to Kenzie Hiller, who is now known as Kenzie Malloy?”

“Yes.”

“Care to elaborate?”

“Her parents adopted me.”

“Adopted you?”

“Yes.”

“Why would they adopt you?”

“It’s kind of hard to explain. But the simple version is that I didn’t want to deal with my own family, so I had Kenzie’s parents adopt me when I was fourteen.”

“So, you lying about your identity back then had nothing to do with the fact that you’re from an affluent family and wanting to hide your wealth from me?”

“Objection! Badgering the witness again!” Hunter exclaimed.

“Withdrawn!” Jeffrey replied before the judge could sustain Hunter’s objection. Unfortunately, it was too little, too late.

“s**t,” Micky grumbled under her breath. Leon turned around to face her.

“What’s wrong?” he asked her.

“Jeffrey questioning her that way can make her look like a liar.”

“She was only fourteen.”

“Doesn’t matter. It puts her character into question. If she can lie like that at fourteen, imagine how well she can lie as an adult at 27.”

“Son of a bitch.”

“There’s no need to withdraw your question, Counselor,” Annika’s velvety voice rang out, causing the courtroom to become silent. “I have no problem answering that. You are correct. Lying about my identity back then was because I wanted to hide my background.” People were about to whisper but Annika interrupted their thoughts. “I lied because I was sick of being under my family’s shadow. I come from a very well-off family. You could even say that we’re filthy rich. But that doesn’t define me as an individual. My entire life, I was shielded from the world, and sent abroad to study at boarding schools. But enough was enough. I wanted to go to a public school for high school, so, I made a deal with my parents. I said that if I could convince the Hiller’s to adopt me until I was eighteen, then my parents would have to allow me to attend public school. But also, under the pretense that my only family was my grandmother and my aunt.”

“Why come up with such an elaborate lie?”

“I was fourteen and was rebelling. Why else?”

“Ms. Silverton, you are aware that faking an adoption with your birth parents still alive and well is illegal, aren’t you?”

“Who said my adoption was fake, counselor?” Annika questioned back, catching Jeffrey off guard.

“How—”

“I divorced my parents before the Hillers adopted me. My adoption was legal and completed through the proper channels.” Taken aback once again, Jeffrey scurried over to his table and began to flip through the mountain of papers. He never once could have imagined that Annika was actually adopted by the Hillers. He assumed that she was lying to conceal more lies; however, that wasn’t the case according to Annika’s testimony.

“Your Honor, if it would please the court, I have all of the necessary documents that record Ms. Silverton’s divorce from her parents, and adoption by the Hillers with me,” Hunter intervened. “Permission to approach?”

“Granted.” Jeffrey and Hunter both approached the bench and watched as Judge Trainor scanned over the documents proving Annika’s words.

“As you can see, Your Honor, all of the documents are dated and notarized,” Hunter pointed out, so that Jeffrey could also see with his own eyes. Seeing that everything was in order, Jeffrey’s soul fell to the pit of his stomach, because his entire argument counted on exposing Annika for lying about her identity. But given that she had a foolproof backstop that explained it all, he had nothing else to question her about.

Without anything else to go on, Jeffrey had no choice but to end his questioning for the time being and cut Annika loose. Unfortunately for him, Jeffrey was Hunter’s next witness.