Page 18 of Ashes of Us
“Yeah, blindsided mostly.” Danica stepped back so she could come in. “Sorry, I never told you personally, I've been on autopilot.”
“Don't worry about that.” Emilia waved over her shoulder, and Xavier appeared behind her holding takeout from Danica's favourite sushi place. Danica grinned, touched and extremely happy to see them both. “We brought food, figured you probably haven't been eating as often as you should.”
“I can't stay,” Xavier said as he walked in and set the food on the table. “The kids are with Mom, and Gracie isn't happy right now.” He turned and hugged Danica. “I'm sorry Jasper's parents are doing this to you, Em and I have your back, no matter what.”
“Thanks, Xavier.” Danica blinked back tears. Jasper's family were too close and too overly involved in each other's lives in her opinion, but when they had your back, they would happily go to war for you. He gave her an extra squeeze, kissed his wifeand headed out with a quick wave as Emilia started pulling out the sushi. Danica went to the cupboard and grabbed some plates and glasses.
“So, what's the plan?” Emilia asked when they were sitting and eating. “What can I do to help?”
“Well, I have the hearing to see if the court will side with Amy and Cecil this afternoon at three.” Danica swallowed the California roll she was eating and reached for the maguro nigiri with her chopsticks. “Everything is on hold until then.”
“Oh, I'm coming to court with you,” Emilia said firmly. “Xavier and his mom are handling the kids for today. She sends her love, by the way.”
Danica chuckled. Jasper wasn't overly close with Xavier or his mother, Rita, anymore because of Rita's comments to his mom during their wedding. She had sobbed loudly through the ceremony to the point that people in the back had trouble hearing the vows. Rita had rolled her eyes and said clearly that “it was Jasper's wedding, not his damn funeral” which had actually shut Amy up but pissed her off and caused a bit of rift in their relationship. Danica, on the other hand, had secretly given her a box of her favourite cookies as a thank you when she and Jasper got back from their honeymoon. “I'll bring her some snickerdoodles when I get the energy to bake again.”
She didn't argue about Emilia coming to court with her; there was no point, and Danica was oddly comforted that she wanted to be there with her. After they ate, Emilia came upstairs with her and helped her pick out her court outfit, a black pencil skirt, white blouse and a dark jacket. Danica showered, got ready and let Emilia put her hair up in a chignon. “Are you nervous?” Emilia asked as they got in the El Camino, Danica with a legal envelope containing the signed papers and a cheque for Trista in her hand.
“No,” Danica answered honestly as she started the car, the engine roaring to life like it was echoing her. “I'm curious about what they're going to claim. According to the hospital administrator, there are only three ways they can do this: prove I'm unfit to be his guardian, that there's a conflict of interest or that I don't have his best interests in mind.”
Emilia nodded as Danica backed out of the driveway and started toward the East Boston District Court House. “Well, you aren't unfit and you're acting in his best interest, because, well, he's dead and you just want to bury him, so that leaves a conflict of interest, which they might have a case for.”
Danica turned her head so fast she cricked her neck. Letting out a sharp hiss of pain, she rubbed it as she glared at her friend. “What do you mean?”
“They know you guys fought badly, they don't know what about, but they know you were in couples therapy to work through it.” Emilia pointed out, giving her a sympathetic wince at her neck pain. “Maybe that's the angle they're trying to come at you from.”
Danica had to admit it made sense. “But that's easy to disprove. I'd just ask our couples therapist to testify that we were working through things.” She paused as she considered what the therapist might say. They had been working on things, but it wasn't exactly a smooth process, and while Jasper claimed he didn't think she had an affair with Alexander, she sometimes thought he was saying what he thought she wanted to hear rather than the truth. She was also a little concerned that Jasper had told his mom about Lucy but figured she could claim she had no idea about the affair until Lucy approached her in the hospital (true) and she didn't believe Jasper actually cheated on her (sometimes true) so it didn't affect her decision-making process.
“The problem is we don't know what Jasper told his parents,” Emilia said gently. “Maybe he was trying to get his ducks in a row to divorce you.”
Danica shook her head vehemently. “No.” she said firmly and truly believed that to her very core. “Jasper wouldn't leave me.”
Emilia reached out and took her hand, squeezing gently. “I know, Sweetie. I'm just trying to prepare you for this.” Danica nodded. She knew Emilia was trying to ensure she was prepared for all possible outcomes, but she didn't believe for a second that Jasper would leave her. He just wanted things to go back to normal. Danica had been the one struggling to move past it.
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At the courthouse, they found Trista exactly where she said she would be. Danica passed her the cheque and paperwork, and she found a small empty room so she could talk to them through the process.
“This is just a preliminary hearing.” She explained as they sat down. “The opposing counsel will present their case as to why your husband's parents believe you aren't fit to be his guardian. If the judge decides they have a case, they will lay the ground rules and set another court date. If that happens, I'm going to request that this be handled as quickly as possible so you aren't sitting with your husband's body on life support for the next several months waiting for your case to go to trial. Can you give me any reason why they are doing this?”
Danica explained everything as quickly and concisely as she could, starting with the blow-up in the garage and ending with finding out about Cecil and Amy filing the motion. When she was done, Trista blew her platinum blonde bangs out of her eyes. “I handle wills and estates, so while I work in probatecourt, this isn't my wheelhouse at all. I spoke to one of the partners at my firm this morning, David Niehous, and while he hasn't done this exactly, he has a lot of experience with POAs and people contesting them, so he's agreed to meet with you if this goes to court beyond today.” She pulled out his card and passed it to Danica. “He's very, very good and has been a lawyer for close to twenty-five years. You may want to research a bit more, but I did a very cursory look into similar cases, and the last one I found was over ten years ago; the lawyer who tried that case is no longer practicing.” She leaned forward. “Yes, he is a partner in my firm, but it's both my personal and professional opinion that he's the best lawyer for you.”
Chapter Sixteen: The Hearing
Inside the courtroom, Danica took her seat with Dr. Cuthbert and the hospital's lawyer, with Emilia behind her in the gallery and Trista next to her. They hadn't been sitting very long when Cecil and Amy walked in and took their seat, with whom Danica assumed was their lawyer, determinedly looking anywhere but at Danica. She watched them for a minute, then let out an annoyed huff and looked back at Emilia, who was also looking angry at the way they were avoiding looking over. Trista gave them an admonishing look, then began speaking with the hospital's attorney, who agreed Trista should lead, since they were just there because they had been named in the emergency injunction.
At about three, the bailiff announced that everyone should rise and introduced the judge as the Honourable Judge Vincent Perella. They confirmed the case number, and everyone stated their names and who they were in relation to Jasper. Preston's lawyer, who introduced himself as Ken Mathers, began with his opening statement.
He droned on for a good ten minutes about Jasper and his relationship with his parents. He did mention that Jasper and Danica were in couples counselling to work on their marriage atthe time of the accident, but he acknowledged that Jasper had loved his wife very much and wanted things to work. The judge was clearly annoyed at this point and interrupted to ask him to get to the point.
“Well, your honour, my clients aren't seeking to take control of their son's medical decisions because they believe his wife is acting maliciously or without reason, they understand that he is, without a doubt, medically deceased and acknowledge that there will be no miraculous recovery. However, Jasper Preston did admit to his mother that he slept with an old girlfriend after a fight with his wife and impregnated her. The night of the accident, the woman was in the car with my client's son, and while she survived with minor injuries, she lost the baby.”
Trista leaned over to Danica and asked if that was true in a hushed voice, to which Danica could only shrug. “Allegedly,” she whispered back. “There's no proof it was Jasper's baby.” Trista pushed a notepad toward her.
“Write everything down in point form, as much information as you can.” Danica picked up a pen and listened as she jotted down what she knew.
“The Preston's are devastated that they not only lost their son, but their grandchild as well and would like to respectfully request that Mrs. Preston allow them to harvest their son's sperm so they can artificially inseminate Miss Lucy Gamache so that she can have the love of her life's baby and the Preston's can have their grandchild.” The lawyer presented the evidence, screenshots of Jasper's text conversations with his mother and Lucy, that confirmed he had slept with Lucy, and he thought the baby might be his. But Danica, reading them over Trista's shoulder, noted that the conversations seemed weird and out of context in some places, like replies were missing.
“Since Jasper and his wife hadn't planned to have kids...” Danica frowned as the lawyer continued to present his case. That was a straight-up lie. She and Jasper hadn't been actively trying for children, but they weren't trying to prevent it either. Danica had been off her birth control for over a year at this point and they had two very early miscarriages; they just didn't discuss their sex lives with his family. She wrote that on the paper and underlined it twice. Trista nodded slightly as she quickly read through the rest of the points Danica had made.
