Chapter Ten

 

COLTON

 

It didn’t matter what I said or how sorry I was, the judge was Jerry’s friend, and he showed up to the hearing in a neck brace and visible bruises and cuts on his face. I didn’t doubt those were real injuries I caused but you can be sure that he was milking the situation for all it was worth.

I was screwed.

A doctor was called to the stand who stated Jerry would have died due to the severity, where I hit him and the angle I hit him if the ambulance had not arrived in time.

I could feel the rage boiling up inside because that was bullshit. All I did was punch Jerry once in the face, and no matter how strong I probably am, no punch I ever could give would cause someone to almost die.

This was fucking bullshit.

The doctor and his attorney claimed it was a brutal attack from a violent man (me) and this plan to screw me over including the cuts on my knuckles make me look bad. Not only did it make me look bad, but it also made me look like a violent criminal.

I was completely screwed.

Despite the evidence stacked against me, they reached a plea bargain, and I was put on probation with 500 hours in community service, and I instructed to attend anger management classes and therapy every week for the next year.

Although I evaded jail time, the war was not over yet. Ruth and Jerry had too much leverage on me, and I have no idea what other deceit they were coming up with to take me down. They decided to stay at a hotel again, and Chris was taken into state custody until a decision is made in court about custody of Chris.

To make matters worse, I received an anonymous email that did not say have anything in it other than a copy of my mugshot picture when I was arrested. I couldn’t do it anymore, all of the craziness is making me crazy, and it’s causing my temper that didn’t exist before to erupt, and all I saw was red. I wanted to hurt someone or punch a wall, but I was going to settle for tossing shit out a window.

 

****

 

AUGUST

 

After coming home from checking in on my apartment and then having lunch with Tegan to catch up on everything she’s been seeing on the news about us. I didn’t want her to worry about me, and I also wanted her to know the truth and not the biased reports that she saw on the news. It took a while, but I managed to convince her that I will be alright and that we would hang out soon.

When I returned to the house, I was immediately taken aback by the mess. Clothing, piles of paper and small furniture all over the front lawn. What in the hell happened? Did we get burglarized? As soon as I walked in to find the front of the house intact, I knew there was only one possibility. Colton got screwed over again.

I went upstairs to figure out which room the mess on the front lawn came from and I overheard Colton talking to someone on the phone about the court case coming up.

“So what are you saying? That because of all the charges against me, that there’s nothing you can do to discredit them? Tell me again why I pay you a lot of money for if you can’t do shit to help me?”

This didn’t sound good. I hated to eavesdrop, but I just had to know what was going to happen to him, if there was anything we could to turn things in our favor.  We were the good guys, we aren’t supposed to lose. This was supposed to end in happily ever after.

“I’m not surprised. The judge at my plea hearing was a family friend. Are you sure they are paying off the judge assigned to my case? That’s just great. No, I'm sarcastic. Thanks, Tom, let me know if you come up with something. We don’t have much time anymore…”

I sneak away from his office to give him some privacy. One of the reasons why I met up with Tegan was because there might be a way to fix everything for good. I wasn’t sure if it would work, but I needed to think about it with Tegan’s help, and then I’ll let Colton know. I don’t want to jinx what may be a slam dunk solution and the one thing that will get rid of Jerry and Ruth forever or at least get them to change their tune and be real grandparents to Chris and the parents Colton no longer had. I know that was a long shot, but miracles do happen.

Later that night, Colton and I went to an exquisite restaurant twenty minutes outside of the city that he loved going to with Karen. Colton was worried that it would offend me, but it didn’t. It wasn’t as if he gave me a wedding ring that belonged to Karen but this place reminded him of happier times and gave him a break from everything he was going to, and if that meant coming here with him, then I’d do it every day if I could.

The other reason he wanted to take me to Pierre’s was that he figured that fewer people would know about the court case and stare at him like he was a leper but we thought wrong. Apparently, local news doesn’t stay local.  It didn’t take long before we found ourselves scrutinized by the locals of the neighboring town. It didn’t matter where we went or where we sat in the restaurant, Colton and I could see out of the corner of our eyes they knew who we were and wondered what we were doing there.

“I wished they would stop.” Colton slammed his fist on the table a little too loudly. It was enough to rattle the silverware and plates on the table.

“Maybe we should just ask for the check and get out of here, huh?” I suggested.

“We didn’t even have dessert yet.”

“That’s okay. I’m not really in the mood for dessert.” I smiled.

“You’re always in the mood for dessert. I’m sorry I ruined dinner for you.”

“You didn’t ruin anything for me. It was a lovely meal. Besides, the night is young.”

Colton suggested we take a walk and head on over to the boardwalk and then to the shore so we could dip our toes in the water. We took off our shoes, letting the water splash up against us and before you knew it, Colton was chasing me down the beach threatening to tackle me into the sand which wasn’t much of a threat at all.

I allowed Colton to tackle me easily and we started to make out like we were still teenagers. It didn’t matter where you came from if you were a teenager you snuck to the most romantic but dimmest place you could find so that you would be caught making out or doing more with your significant other.  Naturally, most teenagers chose the beach.

Colton ended the kiss sooner than I would have liked and rolled off of me, “August, I’m sorry, but I can’t do this.”

“Why not? What’s wrong?” I sat up trying to understand his trepidation.

“I just have a lot of things to worry about,” he explained.

“I know you do. You have the hearing…”

“It’s not just that, August. The custody battle isn’t the only thing I have to worry about. I found out this afternoon from my attorney that one of my companies is being targeted by an unknown source. They’re trying to execute a hostile takeover. Unfortunately, they have too many shell companies for my people to get any information on who’s behind the attacks. If it’s not one thing, it’s another thing. This whole nightmare will never end.”

“Oh God, Colton. I’m so sorry, is there anything I can do?”

“No. I also found out that Jerry has probably been using his influence and could be behind the takeover. I wouldn’t put it behind him to utilizing his influence to attack me on several fronts. There isn’t any hard evidence, just bread crumbs but signs lead to him. We just can’t prove it just yet.”

“I’m so sorry. I don’t know what to say.” I said as I rubbed his back to comfort him. I honestly didn’t know what to do to make him feel better because nothing was going to. He wasn’t going to be happy until this whole thing is over.

After Colton and I left the beach, we decided to head back home to enjoy the peace and quiet. We decided to enjoy the moments of silence grateful and jumped in the hot tub. Despite having too many problems weighing on his mind, Colton’s sudden flirtatious nature turned into such a passionate moment that even an Oscar-winning romantic comedy couldn’t match.

There was nobody around to judge us as we laid in bed together several rounds later. I wouldn’t have ever guessed it, but Colton and I knew then that it was just more a fake marriage to us. Somehow despite the make-believe and playing pretend, underneath it all we realized we cared about each other and wanted to spend more time with one another. We decided that when this was all over, we were going to sit down and determine what our future was going to be like and whether or not he was going to be in my life after all of this.