After a couple of days of waiting I'm finally standing inside a courthouse. I'm honestly so nervous but there's no turning back now. When Kang found out that I did pursue this he is shocked but at the same time he's not the type of person who will just stand there and let me win this case especially Ella's custody.
"We can enter in 5 minutes" my lawyer said. Jisoo's lawyer are just standing close to us in case they need to discuss about something but my lawyer is the only one will stand next to me in there. "We got this" she said trying to calm me down cause I keep on fidgeting with my fingers.
"Do you think we'll be here again?" I ask since some trial takes longer than just one day
"A continuance may happen if they will request for it.. or if we will request for it" my attorney says
"What may be the reason for it?"
"There's a lot.. but I think they can request for a continuance if they have a surprise witness or evidence that have been found or someone wanted to be on a witness stand" I nod my head.. Kang will surely pull everything just to make his name clean "we don't have any jury so it will give us less time here.. if Kang won't ask for a continuance then this can be done today" she said
"Is it possible for Kang to be arrested after the trial?" I ask
"Since we're aiming for divorce and custody, we're basically dealing with family law.. the judge can decided to give the custody to one of you and approve the divorce but I am not too sure about Kang being arrested. We will present evidence of Kang's abuse but it's up to the judge at this point" I nod my head in understanding
We stand there for a couple of minutes as I roam my eyes around the courthouse. There's a lot of people out here but I don't think there will be too much people who will watch our own court trial. I turn around a bit and my eyes landed on Lisa and Jisoo who's walking towards our way.
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I didn't even notice that I stopped fidgeting with my fingers as I breathe out of relief. It already cheers me up just by seeing them here. Jisoo look up first so she saw me and drag Lisa towards my way. When Lisa finally saw me, she gave me a comforting smile, not a full wide smile.. it's just a genuine small smile as if she knows what is just right.
"We can enter in 3" attorney says when Lisa and Jisoo approached us "Ms. Kim, you can't bring in food inside" she added as she saw Jisoo pulling out a food from her bag
"I'll just eat it here" Jisoo said, Lisa walk closer to me and hand a bottle of water towards me. I think I can bring water inside. I smile at Lisa thanking her without saying it verbally. She then lean down a bit to hold my bag, she knows that we will be inside for a long time today so she wanted to hold my bag for me. I hand it over to Lisa as she stand right behind me.
"You'll do just fine, I'll be there too" she said putting her free hand on my shoulder squeezing it softly to reassure me. I then turn my head to look at her, she wasn't looking at me but she turn her head when she felt my gaze on her. She stare into my eyes for a couple of seconds before smiling at me again. We still need to be careful about our relationship cause my lawyer said Kang might pull that reason of me cheating when it comes to the custody. I step back a bit to be closer to Lisa since we're literally on a corner and everyone's just minding their own business to even pay attention to us.
"How's Ella?" I ask her
"She's alright, she's baking with Cory when I left" I told Ella about my trial today and what is it about... Lisa also encourage me to tell Ella the reason why I'm doing this and so I went out with her a couple of days ago and told her about it. Lisa said the court might also question Ella for further understanding of who they should give the custody to. It was tough for her to even process all of the information but she told me that she would like me to be safe and happy.
After a few more minutes my attorney lead me inside so we can go sit at our section. I've never been this nervous my whole life.. I haven't felt such anxiousness even inside the operating room.
"Please rise" the Bailiff says so everyone stand up from their seats. I'm very very nervous to the point where I'm just spacing out. The Bailiff introduced the judge as the judge take over. He started talking but at this point I can't even comprehend his words. This is just the start of the whole hearing so I don't think we'll go straight to questions.
After a series of talks from the people inside the court, the Bailiff swear me and the other party in by asking us both to state our names and to swear or affirm to tell the truth. Since we are the party who filed the first court papers and since we are the side of the petitioner my attorney stand up to recite the cases that will be filed against Kang. So she basically stated Marriage Dissolution, Child Custody, and Protection Orders Against Domestic Violence. She then started giving a summary of the reason we filed it against him.
"The petitioner may call its first witness or her client to take the witness stand" the judge stated once my attorney is done talking. I sigh out and turn to look at Lisa and she's just sitting there right next to Jisoo. She gave me a nod and a tight lipped smile before I stand up and walk towards the witness stand.
"Ms. Kim, will you please tell us a quick summary of your life after your marriage?" My attorney started first
"Well, the start of a marriage is always happy. He took care of me and my kid a lot. He was a great husband and still is a great father. After a few years of being together, it started with an abuse that was labeled as a mistake, and was promised to not happen again. I thought I'll let it slip at that time cause that was the first time. I gave him a second chance until I gave him his third chance and it got out of hand whereas I can't even think of an exact number by now. It happened too often where I don't even know how to stop it. I tried breaking the marriage off earlier but he threaten me with a child custody. I tried doing everything I can to file a case against him but I don't even have much of a solid evidence to bring us to where we are right now. It is a mixture of helplessness and fear of loosing my own child."
"Ms. Kim you have given me a couple of medical records that you have kept for the times where the respondent laid his hands on you. You started collecting medical records even though it shows little to no difference but can you please explain the first evidence that we will present to the court" my attorney said as she pass a folder of the medical records to the judge and the other important people in the courtroom.
"The first medical record was a ct scan and an ultrasound of I believe the first few times that he punched me on my stomach. As a doctor, he knows where to punch and how hard should he punch to not leave a mark or any bruise. He did leave a bruise when it happened for the first time but I wasn't aware that it is something that he will do more often. The second time and the rest were all clean, it didn't leave a bruise or any cut cause he knows that I may put it up against him. The ct scans and ultra sound however shows small changes in my abdominal part. When you get hit by something or someone it may result to swelling in your abdominal part or it may result to an even worse condition such as hemorrhage" I explained while the judge nod in understanding "as I have said, he is also a doctor so he knows all of these"
"As you can see in the series of medical record as the respondent explains, the abdominal part shows some changes caused by the trauma. Without having the same knowledge as a doctor you can easily tell that her abdominal part shows changes from before and after." my attorney said. She started asking me a couple more questions about it since we have more witness than actual evidence.
After she finished questioning me Kang's lawyer stand up to cross examine me.
"As the petitioner presents an overview of medical records, where is the evidence that my client did that? How can we be so sure when they don't have a solid evidence of such action from my client. Ms. Kim, I am well aware that you are one of the top surgeon in this state right now.. aren't you more capable of manipulating your own medical records? As I am discussing this case with my client he stated that the petitioner went through depression during the start of their marriage, whereas she can't even take care of her own kid and herself. The medical record shows changes in her abdominal part, I can see that.. but where is the solid evidence of who did that. Your honor, isn't self harm a hole we're overlooking right now?"
