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Her lips trembled, and her cheeks reddened, but she bit down on her lip and recomposed herself. I messed up. And looking at my little sister facing all this on her own came crashing down on me in waves. Fuck.
“Thank you, Mr. Levine. I have no further questions,” she said, walking back to her seat.
Stunned for a moment, I just sat there, getting ready for the interrogation of my life from our parents but luckily, it was time for a recess.
I couldn’t get away from the stand fast enough as we waited for the judge to leave the room first but as soon as we were allowed to leave, I headed straight toward the bathroom to look myself in the mirror and let it all out. Shit. Did the guys deserve an apology too?
Chapter 28
Val
Ungrateful,backstabbing,ratofa boy!I thought, looking at Chris from my place at the stand. Of course, he would choose them over me, proving to me once again that the only person I could trust in this world to get the job done was me. My hopes weren’t even pinned on my husband anymore. Why should it have been? It wasn’t their responsibility to save my reputation. It was mine.
Settling in the seat, I acknowledged the judge with a nod and turned my head stiffly toward Jared Crawford.
“Mrs. Levine,” he said, his face tense like an old brick, too old to be dating Tiffany.
I bristled in response to him even saying my name.
“Mr. Crawford,” I responded, wiggling in my seat as my nerves set off, sending racing, nauseating waves throughout my body.
“Would you mind reminding us of the reason why we’re in court today?” he asked.
Fluttering my lashes in annoyance, I stared at him. “Because you’re suing us,” I said, curtly.
“Right. My apologies. Perhaps I should have asked you to remind us all of why we’re suing you,” he responded just as rudely.
“For defamation,” I said, straightening my shoulders and holding my head high.
“That’s right. And you’re opposing that you or your husband ever defamed us, is that right?” he asked.
“Yes.” I nodded.
“So does that mean that you stand by your husband’s statements about us?” he continued.
“Obviously, or I wouldn’t be here,” I responded. He could speed this up in honor of the court’s time and mine.
“Right. Bear with me, Mrs. Levine. Can you remind us all of your husband’s statements?” he asked.
Turning my eyes over in my head, I reached for my glasses that were hanging around my neck and placed them on my face. The blond-haired boy, Mario, took the liberty of distributing some papers to the judge and my team before delivering one of them to me. I pulled it from his hand.
“Do you mind reading that, Mrs. Levine?” old, brick-faced Jared asked.
I kept my nose at the paper and didn’t turn to acknowledge him while reading.
“This doesn’t sound like our Tiffany, and I think it’s because those three men—Mario Sharpe, Anthony Whitlocke, and Jared Crawford at Crawford & Beam—did something to my daughter. I’m not sure what it is, but it doesn’t take a genius to put two and two together here. Three grown men, nearly forty years old and a twenty-one-year-old. What could they have in common? Nothing. They are… They are… Well, you know what they are. I don’t have to spell it out for you. I’m going to rescue my daughter from your hands. You’ve done something to her to make sure she won’t leave willingly, but I’m going to…” I read.
“The statement isn’t complete,” I scoffed, tossing it on the surface before me.
“Mrs. Levine, this is a television transcript of your husband’s words on national television. Are you telling me they aren’t an accurate representation?” he asked.
Well, how could one be sure? It wasn’t like I replayed the tape over and over to memorize what he had said, and the last thing I would do was make it easy for them. “I can’t recall,” I answered.
“Even though you were standing next to him when he said those exact words?” he asked.
“That’s right, Mr. Crawford. As I’m sure you’ve noticed, I am getting older. My memory isn’t as spry as it used to be,” I responded with a taunting smile.
He flashed one back at me, and I tightened my face in response. “I thought that would be the case, Mrs. Levine. Your Honor, we would like to move the court’s attention to exhibit 114, already admitted into evidence,” he said.
