“And how did you know I was going to react that way?”
“Because I’ve known you for a long time. I’ve never seen you look at anyone the way you look at her.” She says, looking away from me and standing up, she leans over, lookign at me. “And I’ve never had someone threaten to fire me over calling someone as a witness.” And then she straightens up and walks back over to where Tatum sits on the stand.
?
“Good morning.”
I nod my head. “Morning. I apologize for being a little late.”
“It’s understandable. We should probably address the situation, though.”
“Yes.” I pause as I look over at Zane.
“I saw that your ex-husband was arrested last night for the incident which led you to the hospital.”
“Yes, he was.”
“But him hitting you didn’t surprise you, did it?” she asks.
“No. It wasn’t the first time. It wasn’t even the first time that I ended up in the hospital.”
“That would be 8 months ago, correct?”
“Yes. For the last 6 months, I have been essentially in hiding, barely coming out—”
“Objection.” The prosecution shouts. “Relevance.”
“We’re discussing the integrity of the arresting officer. If he was more than willing to hit his pregnant wife, who, let’s not forget, was in a relationship with the defendant at the time he was arrested, what else is he capable of? Planting evidence? Framing someone? And maybe even possibly committing the crime and framing someone else for.”
“Hurry up.” The judge motions towards me.
“Continue.” Sherri tells me.
“I left my husband when he caused me to lose my baby.” I don’t need to pause to hear the gossip start, but at least now I can have my story out there. Believe me, don’t believe me, I don’t fucking care, but here’s the truth. “Which was the only reason I was with him. He had threatened me that if I had gotten rid of it, he’d hurt me. And if I left him, he would…” I pause looking over at Zane, who gently nods his head, hesitantly. Telling me he still doesn’t like it, but since I’m in it, finish it. “That if I left him and he couldn’t find me, he would make sure Mr. Anderson spent the rest of his life in prison.”
She walks up to the stand and sighs. I’m sure that the jury and everyone else can still hear her, though. “I am so sorry you had to go through that.”
I nod my head again, not really sure what to say to that.
“Because your husband knew about your relationship with him?”
“Yes.”
“And you wouldn’t let him harm Mr. Anderson.”
“No, I couldn’t. He’s done nothing but protect and look out for me. I had to do what I could to protect him. So I stayed until I couldn’t.”
“And if we were to look at those hospital records from your last accident.”
“Depends on which ones you look at.” I scoff to myself. “I had a hard copy printed for me when I was discharged, where there are notes about concerns about abuse. I actually made a copy of them and I kept the copy with my things at Mr. Anderson’s house, and kept the original in a safer place. I knew that Mr. Sherman would know I had them and want to destroy them. When we checked my things after the arrest, the records were missing.”
“Why would he want to do that?”
“Well, according to my doctor last night, there was nothing in my file anymore.”
“And I have one more question, Tatum.” I look up at her. “You said that Mr. Anderson would do anything to protect you. Did he have any reason to hurt Detective Torres?”
“No. In fact, Mr. Sherman showed up to my work. Detective Torres tried to intervene. And I told him what happened when Mr. Sherman walked away. It appalled Detective Torres. He had told me he was going to do what he could to help.”
