Their Escape

~13~

~13~



The day of the hearing had finally arrived. The kids all got up early because none of them was going to miss what was going to be said at this one. I was in favor of them going to school but then Kent told us two days ago that the judge was probably going to want to question the children, so I let them miss school for this. Jason was meeting us at the house and then we would all be driving to the courthouse to meet with Kent.

The kids were already finished getting ready and were sitting in the kitchen eating some breakfast while I got ready. After my shower, I went to get dressed. I had my gray skirt suit and a white blouse laid across the bed and set off to get ready. After getting dressed, I slid my feet into my black heels and then fixed my hair. I kept everything simple today and hoped against hope, that this would be the last hearing.

When we were all ready to go, we walked to Jasn’s truck silently and climbed in. It was a very somber feeling as we drove in silence to the courthouse. Just before we pulled into the parking lot, Jay grabbed my hand and brought it up to his lips.



    “You’ll be fine,” he said after kissing the back of my hand.

    “I know,” I smiled weakly at him.



As we walked in, each girl flanked to my side and held my hands. Matty walked with his dad, a few steps behind us. I raised my chin in confidence as I noticed Seth and his arm candy standing ten feet from the door. As we got closer, his demeanor changed as he looked at his daughter.



    “Hey Savvy. Come give your daddy a hug,” he smiled. Savannah only shrank closer into me and when he stepped closer to her, she moved from my side and over to Dani. “What have you done to her, Melissa? You’ve turned my kids against me.”

    “Do not acknowledge him,” Kent’s voice came from behind me. He motioned for us to follow him and we went went into an empty room. “That was good,” he smiled after we all sat down.

    “I’m scared,” Savannah said.

    “This is going to go relatively easy today. It might be continued for another month or two but we can deal with that,” he said, confidence oozing from every word.

    “Easy for you to say,” Jason said.

    “You guys are doing wonderful. The judge has already seen Seth with that thing draping off of him and he told us at the last hearing that Jason would need to be here. Everyone in this room already knows the results of the paternity test and it already looks good on us because we had it done so early on. The judge will look at Jason’s presence as merely wanting the hard core proof. He’ll see that you all have a budding relationship for your children and it can’t go wrong right now. But, I need each and every one of you to put your utmost trust in me. I don’t lose,” he said.

    “You cocky,” Jason said.

    “Have to be in this line of work. Especially when dealing with men like Seth Whitman. The judge will also sense Savannah’s fear in her father and I’ll tell you,” he said, looking at the kids. “He will question you. He won’t ask anything to hard. Mainly he’ll ask what you all witnessed and probably at what age you first remember seeing him hit your mother. Can you all do that?” he asked, earning nods from each child. When he smiled his thanks, he looked pointedly at Savannah. “You’re going to be the exception. Because you’re not fourteen, there will be a custody hearing for you. You keep your head up and tell that judge what you have seen your father do and I have no doubt in my mind, your mommy will get full custody.”

    “Okay,” Savannah said in a small voice.

    “He has made no attempt to contact any of you has he?”

    “No,” I commented.

    “Okay, it might look bad on him on Savannah’s part because she is his daughter and he hasn’t called or anything. We might be able to use that against him,” he said, glancing at his watch. “It’s time, let’s head up.”

    “Come on,” I said, holding my hand out for Savannah.

    “Hold on one second before you open that door,” Jason said. When Kent looked at him, Jason asked, “Are there cameras in here?”

    “No,” Kent answered.

    “Good,” he said, walking in front of me and cupping my face in his hands. When I felt his lips touch mine, I wanted to lose every bit of control I held onto. “We got this,” he smiled and stepped away from me.



We walked into the courtroom and once again, took our seats at the table across from Seth and his crew. Jason and Matty sat in the chairs that lined the wall and Savannah took the seat beside me and Dani beside her. This time around, Seth’s lawyers looked a little haggard and the confidence they had the first time, had diminished quite a bit. Seth still held a smug look on his face as his girlfriend made circles on his chest with her finger.

The bailiff called for us to stand and the judge walked in. After the judge sat down, he told us to take our seats. He had a few folders in front of him that he chose to look through before he said anything. When he finally did look up from the folders, he looked straight at Kent.



    “I’ll assume that you complied to the things from the last hearing. You had the paternity test done?”

    “Yes, Your Honor.”

    “You have the results?” Kent nodded and handed him the unopened envelope. He slid his finger under the flap and pulled the paper out. He looked at them for a minute before saying anything. “The results state that there is a ninety nine point nine percent probability that Mr. Ryder is the father of two Matthew James and Danielle Rae. Just to clear any unknown thoughts, any paternity test that comes back will never come back with a one hundred percent probability but if this came back lower than ninety nine, we would look into it further. Do you ll understand that” he asked, looking between me and Jason.

    “Yes sir,” Jason answered and I nodded.

    “So, now that this part is over and we can look past it, Mr. Ryder is the father if the twins. Matthew and Danielle, do you all want your last names changes from Whitman to Ryder? Of course, this has to be agreed upon by your parents also. We’ll leave that for another time and now, to the task at hand.

    “Mr. Franklin, I told you to gather some witnesses that would testify for Mrs. Whitman on the count of Mr. Whitman hitting the son. Have you got them?”

    “Yes sir. Mrs. Whitman was able to get seven of her neighbors that said they would talk on her behalf.”

    “I take it you let them know to be here today?”

    “Yes sir, they are sitting outside in the hallway.”

    “Who would you like to call in first?”

    “Mr. Lyle Martin,” Kent said and the judge motioned for the bailiff to ask to witness in.



For a full hour, the judge had each witness come in, one by one the witness recounted their side of the altercation between Matty and Seth. Each of them said they it from different angles and some didn’t even know what was said but that they had seen a man hit a young man in the face. They didn’t waver in front of the judge and the stares that Seth nd his team shot to try to intimidate, never phased any of them. By the time that the witnesses had all given their statements, and was excused, I felt a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders and it was just that much easier to breathe.

By the end of the hearing, I was hopeful that this would be over today so imagine my surprise when he said that it would be continued for another month. I just looked at him and then over to Seth when I heard his lady friend snicker.



    “Mr. Whitman, during the next hearing, you will keep your friend home or outside. This is a family matter and I don’t see how she is involved in this case.”

    “With all do respect, Judge Hatfield. If she is not able to be here with me, I most ask that you prevent Mr. Ryder from being in here with Melissa,” he said in his snarky attitude.

    “With as much respect, Mr. Whitman. Mr. Ryder is involved in this as the father of Matthew and Danielle. As long as the children are here, he is allowed in here. Hearing continued until November fifteenth. This hearing is adjourned,” he said, hitting his gavel and standing up to leave.



After we all left the courtroom, we walked back to the room we met in before the hearing. Kent said that he was going to talk to a few colleagues but he would be in shortly. We sat there in silence. Savannah was sitting on Dani’s lap, looking like she was going to burst out crying at any moment. Matty was pacing the floor and huffing over everything that just happened and Jason was sitting beside me, holding my hand in his.



    “He’s making himself look like an idiot, Mel. Come next month, it will be over aand you can move on.”

    “Why coldn’t it be over today? What are they going to tell me then that they couldn’t tell me now?” I said.

    “There are children involved. Even after it was proven that I’m the father of two, he’s still the father of Savannah. That’s why everything is going slowly.” We fell back into silence and when Kent walked in, he had a big smile on his face.

    “We have nothing to worry about.”

    “Why is it being continued?”

    “Procedure because of children involved. I filed for full custody of Savannah and that his parental rights be terminated..”

    “How can you do that if he’s never abused her?” I asked,

    “Neglect and abandonment. He has not tried to make contact and the only time was when you all were walking in through the door. If he wanted something to do with her, he would have gone through the courts to try to get something but he hasn’t. I know this is getting frustrating but have no doubt in your mind that come November fifteenth, you will walk out of here with your maiden name back,” he smiled at me and then looked at Matty, Dani and Jason. “You will walk out as the Ryder’s and Jason, when his rights are terminated, you can file for adoption on Savannah. You all can be the big happy family I know you want to be.”

    “Thank you, Kent,” I smiled.

    “My pleasure, Miss Baber,” he smirked and walked out of the room. We followed close behind and walked out to Jason’s truck.



After everyone was in and buckled up, we took off down the road. We went straight to my parents and we changed out of our good clothes. We sat with my parents and told them what was said and they had all the confidence in the world that Seth was just making himself look like an idiot. When Jason’s phone rang, he excused himself and walked outside. Five minutes later, he walked back in with a funny looking smile on his face. I looked up at him confused and he only started to laugh.



    “Jay, what’s wrong?” I asked.

    “This is just so funny,” he continued to laugh. Matty walked through at that minute and started laughing at his father.

    “What’s up, pop?” he asked.

    “Apparently... for the last couple of months...” Jason got out in between his laughing. “Seth has been... training...” he choked out.

    “Training? For what?” I asked, confused once again.

    “To fight... me,” he cackled.

    “What?”

    “He’s been taking kick boxing and has informed his trainer and manager that he wants to go against me in the ring. His debut match and he wants to go against me,” he laughed.

    “Jason, that might come back on us.”

    “Let’s call Kent and tell him, see what he has to say about it.”

    “Good idea,” I said, grabbing my phone and walking outside.



I hated having to call him so soon after the hearing but I didn’t want something to come back on us and make it look bad. After I explained what I learned from Jason’s phone call and Kent had his laugh about it, he told us that it won’t look bad on us, unless Jason lost. He said that because of Seth making the arrangements on the day of our hearing, it will come back and bite him. He told me to tell Jason that if Seth’s manager called again, go ahead and sat up the match and to tell him good luck. He didn’t need it but to tell him regardless.

Jason was only to happy to accept the match the time time Seth’s manage called and it was set for two weeks from now. Jason still couldn’t get over the fact that Seth wanted to make his debut and fight the medium weight champion. He even said that he wouldn’t have to do a lot of training because it was going to be a ridiculous fight to begin with. He couldn’t help but laugh at it though and kept saying that he couldn’t wait to step into the ring with my soon to be ex-husband.



    “Everyone is invited. Dani, bring Sam. Matty, if you have a certain girl you want to bring, bring her. Richard, I would like you all there also. I’ll have a whole section in the front reserved just for you all. I can’t wait for him to make an idiot of himself. Thinking he can come into my field of work, challenge me and expect me to back down. This is going to be fun,” he laughed, going outside.



I stared at him and couldn’t help my own laugh that escaped. Jason was right; he wasn’t the type to back down and if Seth thought that, he was wrong. I wasn’t sure if Seth and Jason had many fights back in school, but I know that Seth said that he wasn’t intimidated by Jason anymore. If this was his way of making it true, it was a sad move. I’ve seen Jason in the ring and it’s no picnic.