“Lex,” he said, his hand running up her arm, across her shoulder, and to her ear where he looped her hair behind her ear, “you were never a good liar.”
“I just…have this weird feeling. It’ll pass. Don’t worry about it,” she said softly.
“You want to tell me about it?”
He played with the loose strands at the base of her neck, and it took a lot of effort not to sigh and close her eyes to his touch.
“It’s just a big day. A lot rides on the outcome.”
“You and I don’t ride on the outcome,” Jack said softly. “No matter what actually happens inside…I’ll be free to be yours and only yours.”
“You already are.”
“Legally.”
“Legally, you’re mine, too,” she teased.
Jack gave her a knowing smirk and planted a kiss on her lips. “Not yet, but you will be. Someone has to make an honest woman out of you.”
“Jack Howard,” she cried, smacking him on the arm.
He laughed at her outburst and looped her arm with his. “There’s my Lexi.”
She shook her head at him as they walked to the building and through the double doors. They passed through security and into the lobby of the courthouse. It was an enormous old building set in an old Southern style with large white columns and a grand staircase leading up to the many ascending floors. The civil courtroom where the divorce proceedings would be taking place was off the right wing of the building, and Lexi walked with Jack in that direction.
Standing with her arms on her narrow hips, Bekah was talking to a team of lawyers as well as her daddy and another Bridges associate Lexi had seen around but still didn’t know his name. Bekah looked like the queen bitch she was in a knee-length black pencil skirt with a long-sleeved cream blouse tucked into it. Her nude heels were on the shorter, more modest side. The only jewelry on her body was the pearls in her ears. Her makeup was light, and she had her natural blonde hair pinned back, out of her face.
Victim.
She was always trying to play the victim. It was how she got away with everything. Sugary, sweet outside, but a sour, rotten human being on the inside.
Out of the corner of her eye, Bekah eyed Jack and Lexi, dropping her gaze to where their hands were linked before flitting back up to their faces. Bekah didn’t say anything. She didn’t need to. Lexi could see the contempt on her face from a mile off. She pushed Jack toward Richard, who was standing off to the side and fumbling through a stack of papers in his hands.
“Good, you’re here,” Richard said, his face drawn and tense when he looked at Lexi.
“Right on time,” Jack said.
“I see that you still showed.”
Lexi bit her lip and nodded. The look on Bekah’s face had been enough to know that Lexi was needed here. In a way, it was deeply satisfying knowing that while Bekah had married Jack…she had never really had his heart. He had just been fighting his love for Lexi all along. He certainly hadn’t found what he was looking for in a match with the Bitch.
Richard blew out heavily. He looked like this case was causing him a lot of grief. Lexi hadn’t picked him because it was going to be easy. She hoped he wasn’t losing his grip.
“There have been some last-minute changes. Sorry to repeat myself, Lexi, but I wish you would have stayed home.”
“Last minute?” Lexi asked, furrowing her brow.
“What happened?” Jack asked. He crossed his arms, his jaw set. He looked like he was ready to get right down to business.
Despite the situation, Lexi smiled, admiring the man that he had become.
“It seems the judge has allowed the Bridges to admit some last-minute evidence into the case,” Richard said, shaking his head. “In all my years…”
“Fuck,” Lexi said, feeling the other shoe drop. She knew that packet had felt incomplete. What was the Bitch hiding?
Richard handed Jack a packet of information, and Lexi glanced over his shoulder to read what it said. She skimmed through the legal jargon that warranted Bekah admitting new evidence after the designated discovery period. Lexi’s mind was already trying to figure out how to get this thrown out. There was no way this could be admissible in court. Why had the judge allowed Bekah to submit this?
Because Bekah owned the judge.
Lexi had suspected before, but this seemed to confirm it in her eyes. No judge would have just allowed Bekah to produce new material without some serious justification. Bekah was strategic in holding back this information. She didn’t want anyone to see it until the day of. She didn’t want to give Jack a chance for a rebuttal. Now, they only had an hour before court was in session to discuss what to do with the new information…unless they requested a change in date.
Looking at Jack just then told her that there was no way he would agree to that. He was ready to be rid of Bekah. He would go through with it even if it were against his better judgment. When would they next get a court date? Bekah wouldn’t push for a quicker date, knowing that Lexi and Jack were together. She would delay, delay, delay.
Lexi pinched the bridge of her nose, understanding then why Richard looked more run-down with the weight of this news.
And then, Jack flipped the page.
Her mouth dropped open, and she braced herself against Jack’s arm. It was a photograph of her and Jack. They were at the beach. She was wrapped in his arms, her head resting on his chest. She couldn’t tell from the angle that she had been crying. It just looked like they were together…really together. The next ten pages were of that night.
Lexi’s heart raced as she looked at each one individually. These were from so long ago.
The next picture was of them at the D-Bags show. Shit! Whoever had taken the picture had somehow zoomed in enough to get their hands laced together. She had completely forgotten about that. It had been friendly. It hadn’t been anything at all. It hadn’t happened like that.
Jack flipped through the pictures, one at a time. There were dozens of them together—some in his apartment, others at lunches together, one of him opening the door to her office after-hours. Lexi felt herself hyperventilating. Bekah had been tailing them. With the quality of these, Bekah must have hired a private investigator.
Then, Jack turned to the back, and they both stared slack-jawed at a picture that, while it was grainy and hard to see, was unmistakably them. Neither would ever forget that night. Lexi’s back was pressed firmly against a wall, her red dress hiked up over her h*ps with her legs wrapped around his waist. There was no mistaking what was going on.
She was so shocked by the sheer volume of pictures and the story being told that Lexi couldn’t even get her mind working to tell Richard how much this was complete and utter bullshit. Jack had to get these thrown out. It wasn’t true, but goddamn it, from this storyline, it looked believable to even her. Lexi could account for every moment when these pictures had been captured. None of them were doctored, but also none of them were of her and Jack cheating…except for the last one.
“No,” Lexi said, shaking her head. “Let’s find a room to talk this out. It’s a false trail. She’s planted a false trail. She’s f**king falsifying evidence. Oh, I’ll skin her alive!”
“That’s a great idea,” Richard said, gesturing for them to walk down a hallway.
Lexi could hear the lilt in Bekah’s laughter as they walked away. It took every ounce of Lexi’s strength not to turn around and claw the Bitch’s face off.
They stepped into an open room, and Richard closed the door.
“Are either of you going to explain this to me, so we can have a starting point on how to address it?”
“Have the judge throw it out! It’s not permissible.”
Richard shook his head. “We need a plan of attack. The judge has already agreed to keep it. He took one look at it and said it was too important not to include.”
“What was their reasoning for not having it earlier?” she cried.
“The private investigator was waiting for video footage that was held up,” Richard said, shaking his head. “Bullshit. That’s how I know it’s all wrong. So, one of you needs to start explaining. We don’t have time.”
Richard yanked out a chair and took a seat. After retrieving his legal pad and a pen, they launched into the story. They explained every single picture in complete detail. Neither of them wavered in their stories because it was the truth. For once, they had absolutely nothing to hide.
“And the last one?” Richard asked, raising his eyebrow.
Lexi looked at Jack, and he sighed and nodded.
“It was the night before I proposed to Bekah,” Jack said.
Richard dropped his pen. “You’re really not helping me.”
“It’s the truth though. Bekah knew about it before we got married.”
Lexi chimed in. “I was there. I told her about it. I can name almost ten people who were witness to that.”
“It’s too late for witnesses, but this will have to do. Is there anything else either of you can think of that would change the tides? They’ll work this storyline pretty hard. I can already tell.”
Jack and Lexi glanced at each other, trying to decide if there was anything else, but there wasn’t.
“All right. This is what we’re going to do…”
This entire thing hinged on whether or not they could prove that Jack hadn’t cheated. If he hadn’t signed that damn prenup with Bekah—saying that if either of them cheated, the one at fault had to pay the other a sizable, crippling amount of money and give up all of the assets—then none of this would even matter. It would be a normal fifty-fifty split, like every other divorce.
Forty-five minutes later, when they were called into the courtroom, they had a game plan for how they were going to approach the new evidence. Lexi took a deep breath, and Jack grabbed her hand again.
He squeezed it lightly and smiled down at her. “Don’t worry. We’ll get through this. Lying never seemed to work. Maybe telling the truth will do us some good,” he said with a wink.
Lexi smiled weakly up at him. She wanted to have his optimism in that moment, but this had gone from good to bad to worse in a matter of minutes. She didn’t want Bekah to demoralize Jack…to tear him down until there was nothing left. Lexi didn’t want to think Bekah was capable of it, but Lexi didn’t know. She just didn’t know.
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.