Married To Baseball

Cross-Examination.

Jailyn~

"Congratulations, Jailyn, on what is it, your fifth World Softball Championship?" Jessica wrapped her questioning up pretty quickly after I explained the assault. After a brief recess to allow me to collect myself, Nick's lawyer, Michael Kelly approached. This being his first question already has me on edge. 

"Technically," I begin, "it's my fourth championship. My first season was during the Olympics. But, thank you." 

"And if I'm not mistaken, I should also congratulate you on your marriage to the now three-time MVP and two-time World Series Champion, Christian Yelich."

Is he trying to achieve something by listing our accomplishments? "Thank you."

"Aren't you also the youngest member of the National Softball Hall of Fame?"

"As far as I'm aware, yes," I confirm. What's his angle? None of this has any relevance to why we're here. Neither my career nor my husbands holds any relevance.

"You achieved that at twenty-three, and you're twenty-five now, correct?" Glancing over at Jessica, her brow is furrowed. At least it seems she's just as confused as I am. 

"That's correct." 

"And remind me again when you and your husband met?" 

Jessica stands up, catching and sharing my confused glance, "Objection your honor, relevance?" 

"I'm getting there your Honor," Michael replies. 

Looking between the two attorneys, the Judge lands on Jessica, "Overruled, get to the point Mr. Clark."

"When did you meet Christian, Jailyn?" 

"Mid-June, 2019," I answer. "I was hanging out at the bar my friend Tyler had been working at and Christian came in after a game against the Rockies." This is all public knowledge at this point, why does he care? 

Nodding at my response, Michael continues, "And just to confirm, you were the girl in the Instagram video Christian posted that September?" 

"I was," I confirm, "That, along with everything else you've mentioned has been public knowledge for several years." 

"I'm well aware, Ms.James," Michael replies. I can't help but raise an eyebrow at how he addressed me. Out of all the options at his disposal, he chose the most condescending and inaccurate one. "I'm just clarifying for those here today who may not know, including our Jury. Why did you and Christian deny it was you? You two had known each other for months at that point, why deny it for so long?" 

What a fucking snake, he's trying to paint me as a liar. Make it sound like I have a history of being deceitful. "When the video was recorded and posted, I was twenty. Given my age, I was facing a multi-game suspension from the NCAA seeing as I was clearly drunk. On top of that, the attention I was getting online was crazy, I'd never received that much hate in my life, and neither had Christian. We mutually decided it was in our best interest to deny our relationship to get everyone off our backs." 

"So between the two of you, you decided to lie to the public about your relationship for over a year, even after you'd proven yourself to be a phenomenal athlete as a member of Team USA?" 

"If that's what you want to call it," I state. It's getting a lot harder to restrain annoyance. Biting my tongue hasn't been my strong suit, but how he's trying to spin this makes it harder. "Again, given the backlash over a thirty-second video, we didn't want to deal with it and all the assumptions people already had." 

"So you lied?" 

"Given how people reacted-" 

"It's a yes or no question, Jailyn," Michael cuts me off. God, he's a prick.