After Angelina is out//court date
"Please rise," they all stand as instructed. Mom and Justin stand together holding hands while dad and Lauren do the same. We sit behind mom and Justin with uncle Nathan and his boyfriend along with uncle Ian and aunt Chrissy. They're both dads friends too and uncle Ian used to be Lauren's friend but what she did to Angie is inexcusable. "Case 353 Matthews- Bieber vs. Mendes." Someone says before we're all instructed to sit back down. I hold Angie on my lap.
"Matthews-Bieber," the judge nods at them and mom stands up. "Ms. Matthews, you're suing Mrs. Mendes because of a threat she's posed to your kids and harm she brought to your youngest daughter correct?" The judge asks mom.
"Correct ma'am," she fixes her glasses.
"Mrs. Mendes says that you're unfairly accusing her of things she hasn't done, for the sole reason she's married to your ex husband." Lauren nods at what the judge says. "Ms. Matthews please explain to me the harm she's posed to your children?" The judge nods.
"Well since they've been married Mr. Mendes has been talking to me about taking our kids on the weekends. We've had split custody the whole time but every weekend would come and go last the past one with him telling me he was too busy, or he was out of the city sometimes the country." Mom starts nodding with every word she says. "At the beginning of last month I was put in the hospital, and Mr. Mendes decided to take our older daughter Merciful with him back to his house. She dragged her into the kitchen leaving a handprint on her wrist, and after when her father had our daughter in his arms she was pushed onto the floor."
"And Ms. Matthews do you have any evidence of what you're accusing her of?"
"I do," she nods walking towards the desk with pictures and a disk with the video of me getting pushed to the floor.
"Mrs. Mendes do you have anything to say?" Dad looks pale, he knows the video is his fault. He let them put cameras in the house.
"They put the cameras in my house without permission," she squeals a little seeming quite angry.
"Anything to say on that Ms. Matthews?" Mom nods slowly taking the next disk. She has about ten or eleven just waiting for every possible thing that they could try and use against her.
"Yes ma'am. Mr. Mendes gave my camera crew full authorization to put cameras around the house telling them where it was allowed and where they were not, even though they'd use their better judgement regardless. The only places in the house without cameras are the bedrooms and bathrooms." She hands her the disk and they play it for the everyone sitting to see.
"Alright," the judge nods seeming slightly impressed by mom. "And Ms. Matthews you said something about your younger daughter youngest child?" The judge questions while mom nods.
"During my time in the hospital the day before I was released Mr. Mendes was in the room visiting as he often did, we were arguing it was in fact a pretty heated argument." The judge stops her.
"On what subject?" She looks at the papers.
"On the exact subject we're discussing right now your honour, the threat his wife posses to our kids." She nods and the judge motions for her to continue. "Angelina, our youngest walked back into the room and as she reached for her colouring book Mrs. Mendes pushed her to the ground, I did my best to get to her but before I could she rolled a table on top of the little girl." Mom then grabs the next disk and walks towards the judge. "My evidence," she swallows a little as she plays the video. We weren't there when it happened so we didn't know how it happened or why she did it.
"Mrs. Mendes, anything to say," she simply shakes her head looking a little ashamed especially considering this is going to be broadcasted on television. Although I'm sure mom won't let them, she's a softy and she cares too much about other people to let this air. Although she'll probably keep it to threaten her with. "Mrs. Matthews, what were you hoping to get out of this?"
"All I want is the hospital bill for my little girl to be payed and I want them to know the severity of what has been done." She nods again.
"I've been told you have the doctors report from the little girl's surgery?" She looks down at mom who nods grabbing the envelope. Angie had fallen asleep in Kaiden's arms, I suppose she was as bored as I am. The judge then begins reading it out loud. "It says here right at the very bottom she was given a card?" Mom nods again taking the card from the bag.
"It was just a little thing the hospital gave to her wanting her to feel better about what was going on." She nods.
Angie had gotten a little card on which said 'the holder of this card is now entitled to movies, ice cream, cuddles (etc.)whenever needed as this little girl is braver than some adults' they told her to show it to us when she wanted something.
"It also states that from the time she went into surgery to the time she fell asleep then when she woke up again all she wanted was a hug from her father?" She looks at the document. "Why is this written here?" Mom grabs her photocopied version of the document and looks.
"It was written there because as a parent I'm obligated to give him a copy. So they wrote it on the paper in hopes of making him feel a little bad. As horrible as it sounds." She explains.
"And why did they want to make him feel bad?"
"She walked all around the hospital even when she had her surgery done and she goes and talks to cancer patients and she'll talk to the ones in physical therapy and she gives them hope. She loves to go around with these people and talk and she waves and she tells them little things that make their days. When she was done with heart surgery she walked out to the waiting room and looked around. The day before one of her brothers made her the promise that he'd get her father to go and if he couldn't she'd get a really big teddy bear. She got a teddy bear bigger than her that day." Mom explains sadly. "And she was upset and she didn't wanna talk to anyone for a while, the hospital just wanted him to know what he did."
"Mendes anything to add?" She turns to them and they shake their heads.
"We shall let the jury make their decision," she nods and the people speak quietly before one of them walks towards the judge. "Mendes vs. Matthews-Bieber case closed," she hits the gavel. "Ms. Matthews wins for the price of one million dollars."
