Trent squeezed Maggie’s hand as they entered the courtroom. He heard her take a deep breath before she started down the center aisle. Still clasping her hand, he had no choice but to follow. All the children were with Nancy and Ester in an anteroom. The children were there because his parents had petitioned the court to have them immediately available to them after the hearing.
Ed had filed a counter-motion requesting that the children be excluded from the courtroom. The female judge had readily agreed, but her thoughtlessness in requiring their presence in the courthouse worried Trent to no end. Was she the kind of woman who didn’t care if children were upset? Did that mean she wouldn’t be bothered by the idea of forcing the children to live with virtual strangers? Or were they there so she could solicit their opinion?
Maggie and Sarah’s mothers were with the children, not only to take care of them and to keep them calm, but also to testify if they were needed. Nancy Merritt’s health worried both of them.
He and Maggie reached the front of the room, so Trent stepped aside to let her through the narrow break in the railing. Trent glanced at his parents and turned away, not sure he’d ever want to set eyes on either of them again after this.
Maggie moved to the farthest seat at the table where Ed was sitting alone, and Trent sat next to his friend and lawyer. Ed turned toward them, deliberately blocking the view of those at the plaintiffs’ table. “I tried to reach you this morning but you’d left already,” he said in a low voice.
Trent felt instant panic at Ed’s tone. Ed never sounded worried without reason. “We had to swing by to pick up Ester and Nancy. Why were you trying to get hold of us?”
“Jason Wright added a name to their witness list— Nadine Morresey.” Ed stared at him. “What does your old girlfriend have to do with custody of Mike’s kids?”
The name rocked Trent to his core. “I don’t get it. First, she wasn’t really a girlfriend. More like a dinner companion. As far as I know my parents have never met her.”
“They apparently have. I couldn’t block her appearance, but I might be able to get a continuance,” Ed suggested. “No,” Maggie said immediately. “We can’t put this off. My mother just had to peel little Grace off me. Even she’s feeling the tension. It’s heartbreaking to see those precious little people frightened like this.”
Trent nodded. “I agree, Ed. The kids can’t stand this any longer. And I’m not sure about Maggie, but I can’t either.”
“Okay,” Ed said with a determined nod. “The real point is, can Nadine hurt us? Think. What does she’ know that would help their case?” Ed asked.
While a jumble of thoughts rushed through Trent’s mind, Maggie replied, “Trent dated her until the accident. Maybe they’re trying to establish that he was going forward with the divorce until the children needed us.”
“If that’s all she’s here for, we’ll just admit that you got back together for the kids’ sake. There’s really nothing wrong with that as long as you’ve worked through your differences. But—” Ed dragged his hand through his hair and grimaced “—Look, Trent, I hate to be so blunt, but how close were you and Nadine?”
Trent glanced at Maggie and put his arm around her. “I don’t see how they can make a moral issue out of this. I made her seem like more to Maggie when I was trying to push Maggie away, but she was never more than a friend. Anyway, Mag and I were legally separated, and I only saw Nadine socially. I was never unfaithful to my wife. I was never in Nadine’s apartment. She invited me in, but the thought of it made me uncomfortable. She was only inside my place once. And that was before I ever took her out. She stopped by to see Maggie, and I told her Mag had left me a month earlier. After that, she called me once in a while to see how I was doing. A couple months later, I was so lonely that I asked her out for dinner.
“But that first night when she came by to see Maggie, I had fallen on the ice and was on painkillers and muscle relaxers. I woke up the next morning and couldn’t remember the night before. It scared me to death, so I stopped the medicine. Later that day I did finally remember that she’d been there, but only because she called to see how I was. Man, I thought that scared me, but not knowing what I might have said to her scares me a lot more. Suppose I told her why Mag left me?”
“Well, there’s nothing to do but think on our feet and try to counter anything she says as best we can,” Ed said. He glanced past Maggie, nodding his head in that direction. “We’re about to find out how well we do.”
“All rise,” the court bailiff called. “The court of Chester County, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is now in session. The Honorable Winifred T. Golden presiding.” Trent stood, his stomach roiling. Maggie slid her hand into his and once again gave it a reassuring squeeze. He closed his eyes. Please, God. Please.
The bailiff announced the principles in the case, and Jason Wright stood to present his side of the argument. His opening statement held no surprises. Nor did his polished appearance or dramatic flare. He was well prepared and methodical.
Then it was Ed Hanson’s turn. He approached the bench, his suit slightly rumpled, his hair as askew as ever. He had an. aw-shucks demeanor that came across as unsophisticated and unfocused—and a mind like a steel trap. Nothing got past the man. He seemed to Trent to be the bar association’s answer to Columbo.
Wright called his first witness: Nadine Morresey. Trent hadn’t noticed her in the room because he’d been concentrating on the proceedings. She looked horrified to be there. As if she wanted to be anywhere else. She was well-dressed, and looking, as always, sweet and comforting. The very qualities that had drawn him to her in those dark days when he’d needed a friend.
The bailiff swore her in and asked her to state her name.
“Nadine Turner Morresey,” she replied.
“Ms. Morresey, would you tell the court how you know Mr. and Mrs. Trenton Osborne?”
“I went to high school with Maggie—that’s Mrs. Osborne. After she left Trent, he and I became very good friends.”
“Oh, come now, Ms. Morresey. Friends?”
Nadine blushed. After a long hesitation she swallowed and said, “Friends,” with an embarrassed wobble in her voice.
Trent’s blood reached the boiling point. He glanced at Maggie to gauge her reaction, but she seemed as serene as ever. Where did she find this ability to trust? Then he looked over at Ed, who had just scribbled the word friends on his yellow legal pad, then underlined it heavily several times.
“Were you aware that there was a reconciliation under discussion between them?” Wright asked.
Nadine blinked, clearly shocked by the question. “Yes. Uh. No, not really.”
“Which is it, Ms. Morresey?” Wright asked.
“It hardly matters, Your Honor. Any answer would be hearsay,” Ed called quietly.
“Sustained. Please stick only to facts Ms. Morresey can add,” Judge Golden instructed Wright.
“Where did you think your relationship with Trenton Osborne was headed?”
“Headed?”
“Didn’t you tell Albertine Osborne that you hoped to marry her son one day?”
Ed put a restraining hand on Trent’s arm, or he would have shouted his own objection. He had never considered her as anything more than a friend.
Looking horribly embarrassed, she said, “I guess I said that but—”
“So this man, who was going to marry you, took you out for the last time when?”
“But—”
“When, Ms. Morresey?”
“The day before his brother died. Trent left on a business trip an hour after we had lunch.”
“And at that time he was still going forward with the divorce?”
“Yes.”
“When was it that you first learned of their reconciliation?” Wright asked.
“After Michael and Sarah’s memorial service.”
“Are you aware of the reason for the near end to their marriage?”
“Objection, Your Honor, we aren’t here to dissect the Osbornes’ marriage,” Ed called out before Nadine could open her mouth. “I’ve let several hearsay remarks go by in the interest of time. Four youngsters are waiting to see if they’ll have a Merry Christmas with the aunt and uncle they love,” Ed added, making the point that the older Osbornes didn’t seem to care. “Ms. Morresey is hardly in a position to know the reason why these people separated. And we’re willing to stipulate that one of the reasons for their reconciliation was the guardianship of the children. Perhaps that way he will stop badgering his own witness.”
What did I say that night? Trent thought, racking his brain and finding only what he had back then—fuzz! This was their worst nightmare coming true before his eyes.
“Your objection is noted, but I’ll allow this avenue to be explored up to a point. I want to see where this goes,” the judge said.
“Thank you, Your Honor,” Wright said with a bright smile. “Now, Ms. Morresey, what exactly did Trent Osborne tell you was the reason they separated?”
“Well, Maggie can’t have children. She wanted to adopt. Trent wouldn’t go along with her.”
“So Trenton Osborne hates children so much that he let his marriage end over it,” Wright said at lightning speed.
“Your Honor,” Ed said, his tone rife with disgust.
“So noted, counselor. Mr. Wright, please approach the bench.”
“I’d never say I hate kids,” Trent whispered frantically to Ed, while the judge spoke to Wright. “That’s not why I didn’t want to adopt.”
Ed looked at him sharply, and Trent realized that he’d just admitted that there was a solid reason behind his stand on adoption. After a long moment, Ed nodded and scribbled something on his pad. “Relax, the judge isn’t happy with this guy and maybe not his clients. We have that going for us at least,” he whispered. “I need a little time to think about how to counteract this mess.”
The other lawyer’s voice drew Trent’s attention. “I’m assuming I am still allowed to explore the Osbornes’ relationship, since it will so directly affect these innocent children?”
The judge nodded.
“Why would you say this miraculous reconciliation took place?”
“Calls for a conclusion, Your Honor. Ms. Morresey has no idea why they reconciled,” Ed objected. “No matter what Trent Osborne might have given as a reason, he could merely have been trying to let her down easily because she had too great an expectation of where their social acquaintanceship was leading.”
“So noted, counselor. Sustained.”
“In that case, that’s all I have for this witness,” Wright said.
Ed stood, pad in hand, studying his scribble, while the other lawyer took his seat. “Now, Ms. Morresey, suppose you define for the court what you meant when you said that you and Trent Osborne were friends.”
She looked into her lap, then up at the judge. “I meant friends. We confided in each other.”
Ed was almost comically incredulous. “Nothing untoward, as counsel for the plaintiffs implied?”
Nadine fidgeted. “Well, no. Nothing like that at all.”
Trent breathed a sigh, but still wondered why Nadine agreed to testify to help his parents. They were strangers to her. Weren’t they?
“Didn’t you, in fact, only attend social functions, dinners and the occasional movie or stage play with him? Didn’t his work schedule at the very least prevent more contact than that?”
“Yes, those are the kind of dates he took me on, and Trent works very hard.”
Ed raked his hand through his hair and sighed. “Okay. Now just to clarify things for Her Honor. Is it not true that Trent Osborne has never been inside your home? That you were only in his once? And on that occasion you arrived unannounced to see Maggie?”
“Yes. We talked a lot after that,” she added, obviously recovering from the shock of Wright’s badgering.
“You talked a lot. Went to dinner. Movies. Plays. You were at no time intimate with him, as Mr. Wright implied?”
“No. We were not!” she said, glaring at the plaintiff’s lawyer.
“Mr. Wright also implied that Trent had led you to believe he intended to marry you. Did he?”
“No. I-I’m afraid that was all on my side. When he didn’t go back to Maggie after the first time she asked, I sort of started hoping.”
“It would be fair to say these hopes were onesided, wouldn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Did Mr. Osborne tell you he hated children? Or did he merely say he didn’t believe in adoption?”
“Yes. He never said he hated children. He just said that they broke up over adoption.”
“So, all you know is that the Osbornes were having some sort of a dispute about adoption.”
“Yes!” Nadine said with a sigh.
“Nothing else, Your Honor,” Ed said, a little triumph in his tone.
“Redirect, Mr. Wright?” Golden asked.
The other lawyer shook his head. “No, Your Honor.”
“What now?” Trent asked, frantic.
“I’m thinking,” Ed whispered.
“Your Honor, I’d like to call Trenton Osborne,” Wright said. “I’d like to treat him as a hostile witness.”
Trent’s heart shuddered. He looked at Ed, who was pushing himself lazily to his feet. “Your Honor. This is ridiculous. Hostile witnesses in family court? Trent will be glad to testify. He already intends to. We’re all supposed to be here looking after the best interests of the Osborne children.”
“I couldn’t agree more, Mr. Hanson. Very well, Mr. Wright, you may question Trenton Osborne now, but be careful. You may not badger the witness. I assume you remember the definition of badger.”
“It’s okay,” Trent heard Maggie whisper past the buzzing in his ears.
“Your Honor, I would like a second or two to confer with my clients.”
“A second or two? I think we can accommodate that,” the judge said, looking at her watch.
Ed sat down. “One-word answers if at all possible. Don’t volunteer anything.”
“One-word answers,” Trent repeated, then he turned to Maggie. “I’m sorry, Mag.”
Maggie squeezed his forearm. “Don’t be so pessimistic. The Lord’s got it covered. I promise. Just tell the truth.”
Trent stood, and seconds later was swearing to tell the truth with his hand on the book Maggie put so much store in. He looked over at her, and she smiled reassuringly. He thought it was ironic that she’d been worried about being the weak link in their case, and it had turned out to be him.
“Did you tell Ms. Morresey that you’d refused to adopt for five years and that your wife left over your unreasonable stand?”
“Your Honor,” Ed said, “the use of the word unreasonable is rather inflammatory.”
“Consider it ignored,” the judge said, sounding annoyed. “Mr. Osborne?”
Trent glanced at Maggie. He didn’t remember, but he must have told her exactly that. “Yes,” he answered.
“And had you any intention of taking your wife back until your brother died?”
“No,” Trent said through gritted teeth.
“No more questions,” Wright said, and sat down.
Trent blinked. That was it? Was the case going so badly that Wright didn’t think he needed to push him, after all?
In a fog, Trent stood and returned to his place. He felt sick to his stomach and his skin was clammy. They were going to lose the kids. And it was all his fault.
“…call Royce Osborne to the stand,” Wright was saying when Trent managed to focus on the proceedings again. Royce looked much less like a grandfather than a potential father. He approached the stand with a confident spring in his step, his hair nowhere near as gray as it had been at their last meeting in Florida. Had he actually dyed his hair to appear younger?
Wright questioned him about his plans for the children and the adjustments he and his wife were willing to make to accommodate them. He asked about Mike. Royce spoke fondly of how hard Mike had worked to become a success. Trent felt Maggie take his hand and unfold it out of its clenched fist, and he knew she was remembering the remark one of his parents had made about Mike having been an auto mechanic. Royce mentioned that his son had become involved in a fanatical church, and added that Trent and Maggie were now being sucked in by the same cult. Ed, meanwhile, scribbled furiously.
Then the questions turned to the subject of Trent. His father said Trent had been distant as a boy, never returning the love his parents gave freely. An image of his mother pushing him away when he’d mussed her hair with an enthusiastic little-boy hug pierced Trent’s heart all over again.
The pressure of Maggie’s grip on his hand pulled him out of his painful remembrance because it was suddenly uncomfortably tight. Trent twisted in his seat to look at her and was surprised to see love and fury in her usually serene eyes. Lifting their clasped hands to his lips, he kissed her fingers. “Thank you,” he mouthed, touched beyond measure that she would be angry for him when he was probably going to be the reason she lost the children she’d come to love as her own. He looked away from the love in her eyes, afraid he’d soon see it fade if things got worse.
Ed, he noticed, was still jotting down the odd word to trigger his memory during cross-examination. Then he surprised Trent by reserving the right to question Royce later. The judge called a fifteen-minute recess and left the bench.
“He looked too good up there,” Ed said during the short break. “We’ve still got our side of him as a father to tell, but I wanted him off the stand. Your mother’s next. No matter what she says, we have that letter she sent to Sarah. That has to make her look pretty bad.”
When court resumed, Trent stared down at the table, then closed his eyes as his mother walked forward. Please, Jesus. If You’re real. If You really do intervene in people’s lives, let us keep the kids. Tell me what You want me to do to make it right and I’ll do it.
Maggie watched as Albertine settled into the witness chair. She still had faith that everything would turn out fine, but she was angry for Trent’s sake. Albertine looked cool in an ice-blue suit, her blond hair in a youthful style that took years off her looks. She smiled sweetly and made all the appropriate declarations about her good intentions. She told the judge that she only wanted a chance to give her beloved grandchildren a wonderful life, and that Trent and Maggie would be welcome to see them occasionally if their marriage survived. She expressed worry that the children were being brought up in an unhealthy environment with guardians who had just recently been estranged to the point of divorce. Albertine also blamed Trent and Maggie for the estrangement from Michael that had kept the elder Osbornes from knowing the children. That was something she said she wanted desperately to change.
“Your witness, counselor,” Wright said with a smug smile directed at all three of them. Maggie wished the judge had been able to see the gesture. Maybe it would make her as mad as it did Maggie.
“Oh, I’m going to eat this guy for lunch,” Ed muttered as he stood.
“Aren’t you concerned about the impact four children will have on your social life, Mrs. Osborne?” Ed asked.
“There’ll be changes, of course,” she said with a beatific smile. “But the sacrifice will be worth it. Children are our future, after all.”
“So the number of children doesn’t worry you at all.”
“We intend to hire a full-time nanny to help out, but the day-to-day rearing will be our responsibility. Bedtimes. Playing in the yard. That sort of thing.”
She smiled, and Maggie wondered how long she’d practiced looking so loving.
“We’ve already installed playground equipment for them. Money is no object for us, after all. The children will attend all the best schools and have every advantage we can give them.”
Ed turned away and returned to the table. “Are you saying that you can do more financially for them than my clients?”
“We are more established than my son could possibly be at his age.”
“Your Honor, both the elder Osbornes have mentioned their financial position as if it were an issue here. I’d like to place into evidence the financial statement of Trent and Maggie Osborne. To summarize, it shows that they have every resource available to them that Royce Osborne has. Plus, they have youth on their side.”
Then he handed Albertine the letter. “Mrs. Osborne, do you recognize this letter?”
She went a little pale, then she nodded and said, “Yes.” But she quickly shook off her shock, sat a little straighter, visibly pulling herself together.
“Is that your handwriting all the way through?” Ed asked.
“Ahem. Yes. Yes, it is.”
Ed reached out for it and for a second Albertine resisted returning it to the lawyer. “I’d like to place this into evidence, as well. Would you like to summarize the note for the court?” Ed asked Trent’s mother.
“It was a letter I sent my daughter-in-law. But you have to understand,” she said, turning to speak directly to the judge, “Sarah just kept having children. My son was incapable of handling that much responsibility. He was special, you see, Your Honor. He worked hard, as my husband mentioned, but at a menial job. He was slow, and Sarah took advantage of him from the beginning.”
“You didn’t approve of your daughter-in-law, did you? Didn’t you, in fact, try to buy Sarah out of Mike’s life?”
“Your Honor,” Wright called out. “What does Mrs. Osborne’s opinion of her late daughter-in-law have to do with this matter?”
“I allowed you to explore the near breakup of the current custodial parents’ marriage. I think we can indulge counsel in this.”
“Did you try to pay Sarah to drop out of Michael’s life?” Ed asked again.
“She knew we had money. She saw him as a meal ticket.”
“Is that a yes, Mrs. Osborne?”
“Yes!”
Ed picked up the letter. “Back to the number of children you want the court to place in your care. Do you recognize the phrase ‘Only dogs have more than two children’?”
“I was trying to shock some sense into her. She was dragging my son down. They were living in a wreck of a home that we’d heard he had to spend every waking hour trying to repair. She had no business increasing his burden. But that has nothing to do with the children. They are all still precious parts of him—Michael, I mean.”
“I thought she saw him as a meal ticket? Yet, we know she had his four children and lived with him and them in what you yourself just called a wreck of a house.”
“In the beginning she must have thought we would continue to support him.”
“But you weren’t supporting him by the time they married. Michael no longer lived in your house by then, did he?”
“No.”
“Michael, the son you describe as slow, owned a successful foreign car repair business that was profiting him over a hundred-thousand dollars a year by the time of his death. When was the last time you even saw your son, Mrs Osborne?”
“Several years ago, I’m afraid. Michael misunderstood what we tried to do to protect him from Sarah. We attended his wedding, but Trent and Maggie had painted us in the worst possible light by then. Michael always listened to Trent.”
Ed approached the table where Maggie and Trent sat Trent leaned forward and signaled to him. Ed bent over and listened as Trent whispered in his ear. With a scowl, and without turning around to face the judge, Ed said, “No more questions at this time, Your Honor.”
“The plaintiff rests,” the other lawyer called out.
Ed schooled his features into a bland mask and turned to face Judge Golden. “A short recess, Your Honor?”
The judge checked her watch. “Let’s do an hour for lunch. Then you can present your case, Mr. Hanson.”
The judge left, and Ed turned to them. “What’s this all about, Trent?”
“You’re still going to need the kids and Nancy, aren’t you?” Trent asked. He knew his tone clearly showed the strain this was having on him.
Ed nodded. “I still have all of Michael’s records to present to show that he was indeed in full control of his life and faculties and that your parents were way off-base about you and Sarah controlling him. But I won’t guarantee anything. I think it’s better to err on the side of caution, so we’re going to have to bring the kids in. Your parents are just so darn cool under fire. They’ve thought of a noble explanation for every rotten trick they’ve pulled over the years. I think the judge may see through them, but I can’t be sure. And I don’t want to chance it.”
“Put me back on the stand after you give her all the paperwork. I don’t want those kids exposed to this, or those two sitting there looking so sure of themselves. That’ll scare them to death, and I’m worried about the strain on Nancy, too. Suppose she has another heart attack over this. The kids have lost enough.”
“You’ll get your chance. You need to give some explanation of the adoption thing. But Trent, we’re still going to have to call Mickey and Rachel.”
Trent turned to her. “Mag, take the kids to lunch. Ed and I need to talk. I’ll see you back here when court reconvenes.”
“Talk? Talk about what?” she asked.
“You’ll see. Don’t you worry. They aren’t going to get our kids. Please, go to lunch. I won’t be able to do this any other way. And I know now what I have to do. It’s way past time. Ed?” Trent stood and walked out of the courtroom.
Looking more than slightly rattled, Ed gathered his papers and followed Trent up the aisle.
Maggie just stared after them, wondering what on earth was going on.