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"Oh, yeah, 'bout forty years."
"Forty years older than you were?"
"Uh-huh."
"Were you in love with him, too?"
"He loved me and wanted ta take care a me, so I married him I wasn't as old as I am now and I wasn't as wise, and I didn't have a whole lot of experts tellin' me what ta do and what not, like some people," she added, looking my way.
"Why did you divorce him?"
Once again she looked toward her lawyer, but Camden remained in his way.
"We couldn't get along nohow," she said.
"Isn't it true that you divorced him because he wanted to have children and you didn't?" Camden asked quickly. She flinched.
"No," she said.
"Didn't you tell people that, people we will call to the stand today, if need be?"
She looked down and then up, her eyes blazing at me. I didn't change expression. I had told her I would throw everything at her I could.
"I didn't want ta have any kids with him 'cause he was too old. I mean, what happens after he dies, huh?" she asked, turning in the seat so she could face the judge. "I'm left with children and no husband and then who wants ta marry me 'cause I got children. So I told him no and we had a fight Then we got divorced and then he did die and he didn't leave me nothin'. So I was right."
"But you have a history of not wanting children, Mrs. Wilcox. Isn't that so?"
"No, it's not;" she said. "Look, ain't I havin' ma own now?" she said, jabbing her right thumb toward her stomach.
"And you were married only two days ago?" Camden asked softly and looked toward the judge.
"I already told you that," Fanny said. "Don'cha 'member?" she asked, and the audience laughed. The judge pounded his gavel.
"Now, Mrs. Wilcox, can you tell the court how you've come to have Drake Casteel in your home?"
"What'dya mean, come to have him? I picked him up and took him there."
"Picked him up? Picked him up from where?"
"From outside the Willies factory at the party. I seen him left alone while Heaven and Logan was off partyin', showin' off their new factory. So I drove up and told him he should come with me. He got in ma car and I took him home where he belongs."
"Just picked him up off the street without telling anyone?"
"Didn't hafta. He's ma brotha."
"But didn't you think anyone, Mr. and Mrs. Stonewall especially, would be concerned about the boy's disappearance?"
"Well, they weren't concerned 'bout what I thought." She turned toward Logan and me again, her black eyes blazing. "They neva asked my permission or nothin', just took him to that castle near Boston and then ta their big home here in Winnerow. Well, Pa woulda wanted me ta be his motha, not Heaven. He didn't like Heaven as much as he liked me and she knows it. She knows he'd want Drake with me. You know I'm tellin' the truth 'bout that, Heaven," she said, glaring at me.
I always believed he loved her more, I thought, but somehow I always knew he had more faith in me. He knew that I had a sense of responsibility and he knew that Fanny was spoiled and selfish. No, I thought, if Luke could be here, brought back from the grave to testify, I think he would say he wanted Drake living with me. After all, he made me executor of his estate. I felt confident that it was I he would have wanted to have custody of Drake.
"But you at least knew where he was, Mrs. Wilcox. Wasn't what you did very irresponsible? Take a child without telling anyone? They had the police searching. And once you had the boy in your home, why didn't you call them then to tell them?"
"I told ya," she said. "They neva called me to tell me nothin' They didn't even call ta tell me they was here in Winnerow."
"Still, Mrs. Wilcox--.-"
"It was the right thing ta do," she still insisted, nodding. "Heaven thinks she can do whatever she wants 'cause she's so rich. Well, I don't care how rich she is. Drake belongs to me."
