From Grief We grew (Only On Wattpad)

Chapter 70 Hayden

"It’s all my fault. It’s because of me" is all I can tell myself when I see Bea running out of the room. Teagan runs after her but I stay frozen in my place staring at my stepmother who sat beside me in the stand. Yeun came over to me and grabbed my hand. “You can’t stand here.” I let him drag me away.
 
   “Mrs Fenwick, tell me what do you think of Ms Dawson?” I hear that blonde b*tch ask. I clench my fist as I can’t help thinking about how my parents played me.
 
   “Let's wait.”
 
   “What?”
 
   “Your honour, Bea has anxiety issues. I think we should wait till we are sure she is okay,” I hear Katherine say. I turn on my heel swiftly and rush to her. “WHY DO YOU CARE!? SAY WHAT YOU CAME AND GET OUT!” my heart immediately sinks after I yell at her. Never have I yelled at her this loud. Not even in our last few arguments. My eyes water not being able to bear it. “I never once saw you as my stepmother,” I whisper. “Why? Why can’t you be happy for me? You always had my back then so why?...” She touches my shoulder. “Hayden…” I flinch and shake my head stepping back. Mr Yeun tells me something and tries to drag me again.
 
   “Your honour our opposition is trying to divert the case and seek pity. Shall we please proceed?” Mira's lawyer presses.
 
   “Let us wait until she gets back. Please,” Katherine repeats. I’m too ashamed of my family that I don’t even volunteer to go look for my girlfriend. I sit in my seat with my head hanging low. I hear murmurs and mutterings around. The Judge hits his gavel and silences everyone. He announces that the Hearing will continue after ten minutes. The whispers begin again. “You should go see if she is okay,” I hear Lucah. I shake my head. “This is all my fault. I shouldn’t have trusted them.”
 
   Suddenly, the room falls silent. Someone nudges me and I look behind. I see Teagan walking in with Bea. I notice Bea holding a handkerchief pressed to her head. I jump and dart out of my seat upon seeing her. “Bea! Bea, I’m so sorry I- are you okay?” she nods. “Bea I had-“ she shakes her head. “Don’t worry,” she whispers and walks past me. Does she hate me? She does… I trail behind and sit in Teagan's seat. Lucah enquires what happened and Teagan says how Bea fainted outside. I keep quiet feeling more guilty. I should have followed her…
 
   The Judge asks Miller to proceed and she repeats her question, “Mrs Fenwick, tell me what do you think of Ms Dawson?”
 
   “My client is forbidden to speak in my absence,” Another voice booms through the room. All eyes turn and look at Tusha who marches forward wearing a black suit.
 
   “What!? Katherine, what is this? What are you doing here?” the blonde looks at both women in disbelief.
 
   “Tusha Jones, Werent you in Quebec fighting your last case?” the judge asks.
 
   “I was Your honour. Now I’m back and I seem to have one more case,” Teagan's mum replies.
 
   “Is that so?”
 
   “If you’d be so kind to let this be my last case, your honour.”
 
   “Do you have any evidences to help either of these parties?”
 
   “I believe I do.” She smiles.
 
   “Then you may proceed.”
 
   “What!? Your honour, Ms Smith already has a lawyer. Why is Mrs Jones here? Plus she is family, I’m sure whatever she says will be biased,” Miller complains.
 
   “Mrs Miller, how are you? I’m simply here on behalf of Mrs Fenwick and to provide some pieces of evidence. I’ll say nothing more. This case is still Yours and Mr Yeun's. Don’t worry,” Tusha beams with such charm.
 
   “But Your honour-“
 
   The Judge hits his gavel. “Object overruled.” Miller huffs and walks to her seat. “Thank you,” Tusha says and walks forward. “As I said I’m here to provide evidence. So let me not waste your time. Here is the evidence I have brought with me.” She holds her hand out and right on cue the side doors open. Mrs Larson walks in dragging a handcuffed Pierre along with her. Wait… I look around and see the guy from before seated behind Mira. Uh?
 
 
   Katherine leaves the stand and Pierre fills the seat. Everyone including myself just gape at what is happening. “Your honour this is the real Pierre Adam Jean.” Tusha points to the other guy, “This man is Lionel Clermont, an understudy for Pierre.” She looks at the Judge. “I humbly apologize for the time that I have delayed. The real Pierre went off-grid and was almost impossible to catch. I knew the only possible way to lure him out was if he knew he wasn’t in danger. So I conducted a little mission. Mrs Fenwick here made friends with Ms Smith over here. She introduced Mr Clermont a look-alike of Mr Jean to pretend to be Mr Jean. Clermont whose DNA will not match with the evidence Ms Jones provided, was a good getaway deal for Ms Smith. Now Mr Jean knowing he was no longer searched for because Clermont was filling his place, came out of his hiding and got caught.”
 
  Hearing her explain, I immediately feel bad for accusing my parents. I look at Katherine who is watching me with watery eyes. She had my back just like always… I so badly want to hug her and apologise.
 
   “You and your twisted games Tusha. You know you'll have to pay a penalty for this right?” The Judge smirks. Rather than angry, he seems thrilled by it. Tusha chuckles and nods, “Anything for justice Your Honour.”
 
   Mr Yeun takes over next and starts inquiring Pierre. Pierre admits everything from touching Bea to helping Mira kidnap the baby. About the gas stove that was left on and the chloroform. He claims that they stayed in his friend's shed in the next town. He admits wounding Teagan just to get her to stop bugging his mother. He says it was Mira and him who spoke to Bea at the hospital, giving a detailed account of what they spoke. He admits to taking cocaine. He also agrees that Mira has anger issues and even hit him but he stayed because she would apologise later. But he stayed mainly because he loved her. He says he isn’t sure why they took the child. He saw no need for it but Mira said the baby was her lucky charm. That she would soon get a fortune because of the baby.
 
   “This is all lies! I am innocent. I don’t know who this man is,” Mira cries. The Judge hits his gavel in annoyance. Mrs Larson then steps forward and hands the Judge a couple of photos of the shed Pierre stayed at with Mira. She briefly explains how dirty the place was. Unfit for the child.
 
   The blonde b*tch immediately questions, "Your honour, Why would my client go through such trouble for a child if she didn't see it as her own? When she can happily live her life. My client is still young. She doesn’t need to be burdened by motherhood.”
 
   Young!? Boy, I wanna slap her.
 
   “Good question Mrs Miller. Why would Ms Smith kidnap someone else’s child? Unless…” Mr Yeun pauses and looks at Tusha. “There is definitely a motive behind it. What do you think Mrs Jones? Is the babe just a lucky charm for Ms Smith?”
 
   “I don’t know Mr Yeun.” She smirks. “Let us ask my friend over there.” She points at someone in the crowd. A brunette stands up and starts walking to the front. Mira gasps upon seeing her. Who is she now?
 
   “Your honour here is the other evidence that accompanied me,” Tusha introduces and then looks at the brunette. She’d probably be in her thirties.
 
   “I’m Josie Dawson, Sister of Russell Dawson. Aunt and Godmother of Bea Dawson.”
 
   I look at Bea and back at the lady. She looks a lot like Bea, almost like sisters. “In this laptop, I have the answers to your question, My Lord,” Josie says holding out her laptop. Miller immediately yells that we are making false accusations about Mira. To which the judge silences her. The Judge gestures for Josie to go ahead. The tech guy plugs in her laptop and Josie starts presenting the screen. “This is my personal email, I’m logged in live right now so no one can say it’s a set-up. Take a look as I scroll through the screen. Make a note of the dates.”
 
   Between the 5th to 7th of every month, Josie received an email from Mira. It goes all the way till February 20th of last year. Josie opens the mail Mira sent to her on the 20th. Hello Josie, So kind of you to keep in touch as you said. We are barely surviving. Bea hasn’t been doing well and I’m unable to overcome Russell's death. To be honest I’m not sure how I’m going to do all this alone. I love both my children. Russell applied to university for Bea but I don’t think I have the means to send her though. This breaks my heart. I hope you are doing well. Josie pulls up an application form for Western University. I frown. “I never knew Dad applied for me to go to Uni…” Bea says.
 
   Josie shows her reply mail in which she volunteers to send 14,000 dollars to pay for Bea's fees. The next thread to this email is Mira acknowledging that she received the cash and thanking Josie. Josie then opens some more emails in which Mira thanked her for the money she sent. In one email there is a video of Bea playing with Avery. Bea is such a good mother, so young but yet so natural. I’ve attached a picture is written below. “As you can see Mira with her own mouth says this is Bea’s child,” Josie points out. “Even though she knows I’m aware of the adoption.”
 
   Josie then shows screenshots of her bank transactions. Every month Josie sent 200 dollars to Mira's account and last month she sent 14,000 dollars again. She then goes back to her emails. She scrolls through and opens an email sent to her by Bea's dad.
 
My Dear Josie,
How are you? I made a huge sale and managed to put up money for Bea's operation. She will be undergoing surgery next week. I hope it goes well. Avery is such an Angel. So much good has been happening recently.
 
   I’ve written my shop and the house in both Bea's and Avery's names. I don’t believe Mira will look after them when I’m gone. So I want to leave something for them. Here is a copy of the documents.
 
   Josie opens two documents showing the will Russell wrote. I hear sniffles and my attention shifts to Bea. Teagan rubs her back while Bea whips her cheeks. I put my hand through the bench and hold her hand. “Your Honour, I would like to ask Ms Dawson a question.” My attention shifts back to Tusha. She walks over to us and Bea stands up. “Ms Dawson, when was the last time you saw and spoke to your aunt?”
 
   “I-“
 
   A hysterical cry rings through the room. Mira starts hitting her chest as she wails, “I just want my baby. I love my baby. She is my baby too. These people wanna take away my child. I don’t care about money. I’ll give it all back right now. Please just give me back my child.”
 
   I watch as her lawyer pulls out a book and Mira starts scribbling in it. “Tell me how much I owe. I’ll give all the money back. Tell me!” Is she for real? What kind of drama is this now?