My God, was the woman even human? Beth was furious on Landon’s behalf and trembled with the impulse to charge up there and tear the attorney’s eyeballs out. No one could know how painful it was to Landon to speak of this boy, except Beth. “He passed away when he was ten months old,” Landon tersely replied.
The judge’s expression broke with empathy as he regarded Landon.
“Tell me, Mr. Gage. Is David your son?” the attorney asked.
“He’s my wife’s son.”
“And my client’s son?”
“Correct.”
The lawyer paced thoughtfully. “When did you meet your wife?”
Landon told them when. She asked, not without a hint of sarcasm, “A confirmed bachelor for so long, with your choice of women, why marry one with such a ‘reputation’?”
Mason lifted the pen he used to make notes. “Objection, Your Honor, she’s slandering my client.”
“Sustained.”
The perturbing laugh the woman released only made Beth’s fury escalate. “I must rephrase. Mr. Gage, why did you marry Bethany Halifax?”
Mason flew to his feet this time, slamming down a hand. “Objection, Your Honor! Mrs. Gage is insulted by the deliberate use of her old name and I must ask that it be stricken from the record.”
“Sustained,” the judge conceded.
Now, the opposing attorney set her jaw in determination and walked so close to Landon, Beth had to angle to the side to see his face. “Do you love your wife, Mr. Gage?”
Landon’s gaze flicked to hers. He lowered his voice to a rough whisper, and although he wore an expression of cold indifference, his eyes gleamed with intensity as he stared at Beth. “Yes.”
If Beth had just been torpedoed, the impact would have been less than that single word.
“How do you feel about this picture, Mr. Gage?”
A shadow crossed Landon’s eyes as he inspected the photograph she showed him—no doubt the same disgusting, humiliating photograph she’d shown to Beth. “Enraged,” Landon said, his low, silken voice laced with a threat.
“Why does it enrage you?”
“Because Halifax exploits the fact that my wife loves her child—and will go to any lengths to blackmail and hurt her.”
The lawyer seemed vaguely amused as though she couldn’t fathom where Landon got such an idea, then asked plainly, “Do you hate Hector Halifax, Mr. Gage?”
The question hung in the air for a tense moment. Sirens wailed inside Beth’s head, a warning.
“Do you admit, Mr. Gage, that you hate Hector Halifax and would do anything to hurt him? Would go to any lengths to ruin him?”
Silence.
Beth held her breath until her lungs burned, mentally willing him to deny this accusation. If he didn’t, they would be doomed. But then she knew Landon, and she knew that Landon Gage did not lie….
Then a hard, murderous word resounded in the room, spoken without apology or hesitation. “Yes.” Mason cursed quietly at Beth’s side, while Landon continued. “I hate Halifax. And I will ruin him.”
Hector’s attorney smiled in victory, then waved an arm out as though that were that. “No more questions, Your Honor.”
The second day of the hearing, Landon again held Beth’s hand.
His grip was warm and strong, offering much-needed support as they watched Hector take the stand. While she put every effort into reining back her nervousness and her bleak thoughts of the day ahead, Landon looked eerily calm today.
The men had been locked in Landon’s study all through last night, and it seemed that whatever last minute evidence Landon had provided made the lawyer conspiratorially tell Beth this morning, “It’s in the bag.”