e spoke again. “Were you happy during the remainder of those years?”
“No.”
Mason swung round to face her fully. “No. You weren’t happy married to Hector Halifax.” He approached, his expression as intent as his voice. “Can you tell the court why you were unhappy?”
Skewered under not only Mason’s sharp brown gaze, but also a dozen others, Beth struggled to find a starting point.
“Did he physically abuse you, Mrs. Gage?” Mason leaned back on his heels and waited. “Was he unfaithful?”
She seized her cue, almost leaping. “Yes. He was unfaithful.”
Mason stole a brief glance in the judge’s direction. “Hector Halifax was unfaithful to you. When did you decide to leave him?”
“When I realized he’d loved another woman all the time he’d been married to me. And when I realized I didn’t love him anymore, maybe never really had.”
“How did Hector take it? Your separation?”
Aware of Hector’s eyes burning holes through the top of her head, she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of looking at him.
“We had several failed attempts to separate, but he persuaded me to stay. I was only successful when David turned six. Over a year ago.”
“Did his method of persuading you to remain married include blackmail, Mrs. Gage? Perhaps…in the way of these pictures? Presented to court during your first hearing?”
Beth spotted a wad of pictures in Mason’s hands, and the humiliation she felt threatened to overwhelmed her. Just to think of Landon seeing those pictures of her in different men’s embraces, even if they were fake, made her stomach roil. “Yes, that did play a part. And of course, he threatened to take David away.”
“Your Honor, may I present for evidence both the pictures and lab report which concludes these photographs have been tampered with?”
The judge received the stack of pictures and the lab paper Mason produced and reviewed them in tense silence. Beth squirmed in her seat, part of her wishing she’d had such a kick-butt lawyer on her side the last time she’d been in court, and another part dreading what came next. Hector’s lawyer looked so pale and pissed Beth was sure she was going to be that woman’s lunch.
Mason continued the interrogation, his questions expertly phrased in ways that shed light on the good, caring mother she was. A loving wife who hadn’t been properly appreciated by her first husband.
Her nervousness escalated when the topic led to the new man in her life. Landon. To speak of Landon and Hector in the same conversation almost felt like blasphemy.
Beth struggled to put up a brave front, an image of a new family, but in the deepest, darkest part of her, she knew what she said was a lie every bit as bad as those Halifax loved making. She didn’t offer a wonderful new family and a new father to David—she offered only herself and her love.
Suddenly, it didn’t feel like enough next to the Gages.
It didn’t feel like enough next to the protection, the safety Landon represented.
Everything he’d promised he’d do for Beth, he had. Whatever the verdict, Landon Gage had come through for Beth.
He’d gotten her a new hearing.
And what had she done for him?
Her throat felt crowded with unspoken words and remorse for how she’d hurt him. She hadn’t been his wife who’d betrayed him, who’d abandoned him one rainy night, but she felt like she was—because she’d opened his eyes and he loathed her for it.
Her spirits plummeted when Mason finished off his questioning, and now the other lawyer’s turn came up. Beth braced herself for the attack. The female lawyer’s eyes glimmered as she approached, not even bothering to hide the fact that she enjoyed every second of Beth’s anxiety.
“Mrs. Gage, tell me one thing,” the smooth-talking woman began. “Why did you marry Landon Gage? Was it because you needed to clean up your image? Or because of his money?”
Mason slammed a hand down. “Objection, Your Honor!”
“Objection sustained.”
“Your Honor,” the defense argued, adding a winning smile to drive her point home, “her motivations for the marriage are dubious, at best, especially so soon after her divorce from Mr. Halifax. I insist Mrs. Gage give us a direct answer to a direct question. Why did you marry Mr. Gage?”
Beth waited for someone to object, her dread escalating.