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“Your Honor, the plaintiff has had our robust request for discovery for weeks. This last-minute parlor trick to submit new evidence on day one is a stall tactic.”
“Counselors, approach the bench,” the judge requested.
“Your Honor, we only discovered these emails yesterday that prove Mr. Tovar was the decision-maker for this lucrative business.”
Alarms went off in Hailey’s mind. Had she left something out for Smith to find in her office? Did he somehow have access to her emails with Mrs. Tovar?
“Who is the email exchange with? You’ll need to prove relevance before I let you submit them,” the judge said.
“The emails are from Mrs. Tovar’s personal email and involve a research contractor named Billie Monroe.”
The hairs went up on the back of Hailey’s neck. She knew that name but couldn’t be sure how.
“Your Honor, my client never volunteered her personal email account for review, and there was no warrant served to retrieve this.”
“It wasn’t necessary,” the plaintiff’s attorney said. “Your client’s email was stored on the joint family cloud, and in this instance, as you will see, she forwarded her emails to Mr. Tovar, giving him permission to access.”
“It does appear these were forwarded, Ms. Adams. But I’ll give you a day to review them and determine what to make of them. We’ll reconvene tomorrow afternoon,” the judge announced.
With a smile, Hailey returned to her side of the courtroom. The judge made her ruling, and they were all dismissed.
“Do not let them goad you,” Hailey said under her breath to Finn next to her. She stepped away to whisper the same thing in Mrs. Tovar’s ear but in a nicer tone.
“We’ll reconvene at the firm. Don’t let them see you sweat. This is their desperate last attempt.”
Mrs. Tovar smiled and met Hailey’s eyes. “Sophisticated pleasure toys?”
Hailey fought a grin. “Well, when you add sophisticated to anything, it makes it sound high end.”
“I’m going to add that slogan to our PR campaign,” Mrs. Tovar said.
“Good luck trying to steal from me now, Sara,” Mr. Tovar barked over the aisle between their opposing sides of the court. “You won’t get a dime from me, and our son will be coming to live with me full-time.”
“Get your client under control,” Finn said with such authority a chill ran down Hailey’s back.
The bailiffs also keyed in on the commotion and stepped in, moving Mr. Tovar and his gaggle of lawyers toward the exit. Smith smirked at Hailey before he followed them out.
Finn placed his hand on the small of her back. “I recommend we exit via the garage where I parked. There was already press when we arrived.”
“How did you park in the courthouse garage?” Hailey asked.
“Perks of being a Maguire.” He grinned unabashedly.
“I have a car service waiting,” Mrs. Tovar said.
“It’s highly likely your ex-husband is out front making some bombastic claims about winning in court today. We don’t want to add fuel to the flame,” Hailey said.
“I want to read these emails,” Mrs. Tovar said.
“Let’s take Finn’s car and wait to discuss anything until we’re back at the firm.”
Mrs. Tovar agreed. “Is it weird I actually enjoyed watching you run circles around his lawyers? I’m looking forward to tomorrow,” Mrs. Tovar said with a grin and followed Finn to the exit.
Hailey let out a deep breath. One more day, and she’d finally finish this case.
A half hour and one odd car ride later, with a stop for cupcakes per Mrs. Tovar’s request, they were all seated in the conference room. Hailey pulled out the stack of emails while Finn and Mrs. Tovar indulged in the decadent cupcakes.
“Before we get started on these emails, we need to know how often, if at all, you included your husband in your business dealings.”
