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“Well, yes, we do actually,” Troy says. “With your permission, your honor, I’d like to submit this thumb drive into evidence for the court to review.”
“Granted,” she says. Troy hands the thumb drive to one of the guys who hooks it up to the TV screen at the side of the room. The video begins to play and rather than relive that moment, I look to Crue and Katie and mouthdon’t watch.
Katie
Don’t watch,he mouths. I shake my head as I need to see everything he went through in order for us to get to this point. Bruises still mar his handsome face, and the moon boot he wears scares the shit out of me. What the fuck happened to him? The video begins to play and the sound of Devon’s angry tone fills the room.
“Sign the papers boy,” he growls.
“Not until you sign her over to me.”
I gasp as we watch six large men enter the room and fan out around Saint. He looks at each of them and when a look of acceptance crosses his face, my heart breaks, he knows what’s about to happen to him. He leans down and places a kiss on Addy’s little head before nodding for… it’s the lady from the hotel. She comes and takes Addy from Saint. The moment they disappear from the room, Saint cracks his neck side to side and looks to his father.
“Let’s get this beating over with, shall we?”
“It doesn’t have to be this way, you’re a star now, boy. You really want pictures of you snapped and posted online covered in bruises?”
“We gonna keep playing with our dicks or get this shit over because I’m not signing anything, motherfucker.”
“Teach him a lesson,” Devon snarls.
I watch in horror as the six men all rush Saint. He does his best to fight back but there are too many of them. He covers his head with his arms as he drops to the ground, grunting in pain. Beck, Corvin, Darius, Crue, Nathan and even Alexa’s cousins’ boyfriends, Tanner and Talon, are all grunting and growling at the injustice that Saint is being subjected to. The moment Devon hands one of the guys a baseball bat, I die inside.
“Oh, my God,” I cry as I watch the guy use the bat on Saint’s leg. The scream of pain that comes from him fucking kills me.
“I’m coming for you, motherfucker,” Darius shouts at Devon.
“You son of a fucking bitch!” Crue roars from beside me, the judge pins them with a warning look but even she looks disgusted by the video. The men step away from Saint to reveal my bloody, beaten and bruised, strong man lying there on the ground broken. Sobs can be heard from the girls but I’m too transfixed on the screen to look at them. Devon kneels down beside Saint, tears trek down my cheeks when I see he’s still conscious. A part of me hoped they had knocked him out so he wouldn’t have felt the full force of their kicks and punches.
“Sign the company and your inheritance over to me and I’ll give you that bastard. The courts will rule in favor since you're my son and it’s my bastard granddaughter.”Anger thrums through me at how he speaks about my child. Crue grinds his teeth so fucking hard to try to control himself from lashing out at Devon.
Even broken and beaten, Saint smiles a bloody smile up at his father.“You dumb fuck, you will never get a single cent. You fucked up the moment you went to Jackson and adopted my daughter illegally, I never signed my rights over. Katie’s friend lied and forged those documents.”Horror fills me as I look to Nathan who has turned pale, we’re going to jail.“Do whatever you want to me, I don’t care. All I want is my daughter.”
Hearing those words come from his lips has hope blossoming inside my chest, maybe him knowing the truth about Addy not being his won’t change things.
“Give me everything I want and then I’ll give it to you.”
“Sign her over to me and relinquish your rights, then I’ll give you everything.”
A dark laugh escapes Devon.“Nice try. Tell the court you knew about the adoption and agreed to it and then sign over the ownership of the companyandeverything else to me, I’ll give you what you want. Fuck me over and I’ll make sure that mutt pays the price.”
The video ends and I slowly turn back to Saint. Sadness shines in his eyes but it isn’t for himself, he’s sad we had to see what he went through to get here.
“Your honor, I move to petition the court to have Mr. Devon Morgan arrested and charged with the assault, fraud, and illegal distribution of child pornography—”
“You have no proof of that distribution,” Devon’s lawyer argues.
“Actually,” John begins cutting in before Troy can. “We have a witness that can attest to these claims.”
“Very well, Mr. Sutton,” The judge says. “Mr. Morgan, you may step down,” She says to Saint. He limps back toward us and instead of returning to his original seat he slips into the row behind us and rests a hand atop each of Crue's and my shoulders. “Call your witness, counselor.”
“We call Gary Hayes to the stand.” Saint’s grip on my shoulder tightens, clearly he’s surprised we were able to build our own case.
“You’re not the only one with tricks up your sleeve,” Crue whispers over his shoulder. Gary walks into the courtroom looking like a shell of the guy I saw at the game the night he played that video. He’s skinny and looks rugged. We wait with bated breath as Gary is sworn in and takes his seat, his gaze never once strays our way. I look over to Leah to find Darius and Beck have both pushed in closer to her. Darius holds her hand while Beck has his arm wrapped around her shoulders.
“Mr. Hayes, please state your name for the court,” John asks.
“Uh, Gary Hayes.”
