Avoiding Temptation (Avoiding 3)

They left the room behind and walked down to the entrance of the courtroom. Bekah smugly walked in before them. The way she looked at them made it seem like she had already won.

Lexi didn’t know what it was about that look, but it sparked a light bulb in her mind. She pulled up short, yanking on Jack’s arm, as he tried to continue walking forward. Lexi was shaking her head, realizing what she had been missing.

“Lex, come on,” Jack said, urging her forward. “It’ll be over soon.”

“I have to get something. I just remembered…” She trailed off.

“What?” Jack asked, his eyes trained on her.

She was sure he could feel Richard staring daggers at them.

“I know what can help. I’ll be back,” she said, turning to leave.

“What? Lexi,” Jack called.

She stopped and turned back around.

“What is it? What should I tell Richard?”

Lexi smiled and whispered into Jack’s ear.

Jack laughed and nodded. “All right.”

“Tell him to be ready,” she said before turning and jogging out of the courthouse.

Lexi missed almost everything, but it didn’t matter.

She had found what she had been looking for. She hadn’t been sure that it still existed or that it would be enough, but she had to try. Jack would try for her. As long as the judge allowed them to contribute more information to the case, then they would be in the clear. If Bekah had completely bought out the judge of all sanity, then nothing they did would help anyway.

Lexi eased quietly into the courtroom and took a seat in the back. She didn’t need to move forward until Richard called for her.

Lexi tapped her foot impatiently. The adrenaline was pumping through her veins, and she felt the familiar rush that she got right before putting the nail in the coffin on a case she had been working on for a long time. And Bekah certainly was a case Lexi had been trying to crack.

Bekah sat on the stand. She had already been sworn in, and her attorney was asking her questions. Bekah looked the part, and it turned Lexi’s stomach. She had been coached well. Lexi didn’t even hear the question her lawyer had asked, but she heard the speech Bekah gave then. It was clearly well rehearsed.

“Cheating is never okay, but in marriage,” Bekah said, dabbing at her eyes, “it is so much worse. In marriage, you made a commitment before your friends and family and God. You signed a legal document with the state, acknowledging that you’re family now. It’s different. Why waste all of that time and love? Nothing destroys you that much, and if it does, then you should turn to your partner.”

Bekah looked over at Jack then with what she was trying to pass as true sadness. While Bekah’s act was good, it was still just an act.

“Your partner,” Bekah repeated. “Not anyone else. That’s what your partner is there for. If the partner is not, then you should at least have the decency to talk through it. Don’t put the other person through the ringer for your own inadequacies.”

Lexi was pretty sure she was going to throw up if she had to listen to another word of the bullshit Bekah was spouting. Yes, what Bekah was saying was true, but the context was all wrong. Jack hadn’t done anything!

Bekah continued talking about the photographs and telling the easy story that was spun out of the pictures. Lexi knew it was coming, but she still couldn’t keep from cringing.

“No further questions.”

Phew! Richard’s turn. Finally.

“Ms. Bridges,” Richard said, standing and walking up to her, “did you ever purchase anything for Ms. Alexa Walsh, who is pictured here?” He slapped one of the photographs down in front of Bekah.

“I’m not sure how that’s relevant,” Bekah answered snootily.

“Simple question, Ms. Bridges. Did you or did you not purchase anything for the woman pictured here?”

Bekah’s eyes flitted to her attorney, then to her father seated directly behind the attorney, and then to Lexi. Lexi broke out into a challenging smile.

“No. I don’t believe I did,” Bekah said.

Lie. And under oath.

“Really?” Richard asked, raising his eyebrows. “Your honor, I would like permission to submit two pieces of evidence before the court and request a subpoena for Ms. Bridges’s credit card history.”

“I object,” Bekah’s attorney cried, standing and throwing his fist down. “New evidence is not permissible during court proceedings.”

“What new evidence?” the judge asked. “And why a subpoena? Explain yourself, Richard.”

Richard gestured for Lexi to move forward, and she rose to her feet as Richard continued speaking.

“Ms. Bridges claims that my client had an affair with this woman. While only a few pictures, grainy at best, show my client having any sexual relations with Ms. Walsh, we can prove to you that these pictures were taken before my client was married to Ms. Bridges since Ms. Bridges herself purchased the dress in the photos.”

“I object,” her attorney said again. “There is no reason to admit this into the file.”

“If we had had all of the evidence you were bringing to the table by the discovery deadline, then we would have easily obtained this information and had it on file for you,” Richard cut in.

“Quiet, both of you,” the judge said. “Let me see what you have.”

Lexi handed Richard the folded red silk material of the dress she had worn to Jack’s birthday party all those years ago. It had been tossed to the bottom of her closet in New York—out of sight, out of mind. But when she moved, she had put it in a box with a bunch of other stuff that she had never unpacked. There it still lay when she had recovered it to hand to Richard.

Next, she passed him a picture she had taken off her dresser. She had felt bad about taking it without talking to Ramsey, but he hadn’t been home, and she hadn’t moved her stuff out yet. She and Ramsey had been standing together at Jack’s birthday party. A passing photographer at the event had taken the photo that night, and in the background, she could just see the birthday festivities and the Happy 25th Birthday, Jack banner hanging across the back wall. It was faint, but it was there. There was no mistaking it. Lexi had always hidden the picture behind some of the others that cluttered her dresser but Ramsey had always liked it…so she had kept it. Now, she was glad that she had.