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Framed by My Ex-Wife: My Daughter's Hidden Secret Saved Us All
NovelShort
Completed
In the courtroom, the air seemed to freeze. On either side of the mediation table, Melissa and I sat worlds apart. The judge took off her reading glasses and looked at the two small figures standing between us. "Noah, Ruby, Daddy and Mommy are separating. Who do you want to live with?" Melissa clutched a tissue, her eyes red-rimmed, and reached out her hand toward the children.
Chapters (4)
Chapter 1
The courtroom was so still the air seemed to have frozen.
On either side of the mediation table, Melissa Porter and I sat as far apart as two people could get.
The judge took off her reading glasses and looked at the two small figures standing between us.
"Noah, Ruby, your daddy and mommy are splitting up. Who do you want to live with?"
Melissa clutched a tissue, her eyes red-rimmed, and reached out to the children.
Everyone assumed these four-year-old boy-girl twins, who usually clung to their mother more than anyone, would rush to her without a second thought.
But my daughter, Ruby Bennett, stayed right where she was.
She tilted her head back, and her clear dark eyes looked up at the judge.
"Grandma Judge, can I show you a secret?"
From the pocket of her overalls, Ruby pulled out an old phone with a cracked corner on its screen.
"A secret even Daddy doesn't know."
The court clerk walked over, took the phone, and connected it to the big screen.
The moment the video started playing, everyone in the courtroom froze.
At seven-thirty in the morning, the third-floor hallway of the old apartment building smelled of fresh coffee.
Doris Whitaker from across the hall was holding her grocery basket and whispering to Carol Lawson from downstairs.
"Did you hear? That couple on the third floor was throwing things again last night."
Carol lowered her voice and glanced up the stairs.
"It was loud, all right. They even broke glass."
Doris sighed and brushed the bits of green onion off her hands.
"Lucas Bennett and Melissa. People used to be so jealous of those two."
"Weren't they? Married five years, with a pair of boy-girl twins."
"Those two little ones look like they stepped right out of a magazine. They say hi to every grown-up they see, calling them Grandpa and Grandma. Such sweet little talkers."
"Who'd have thought it'd come to this? Every day it's chaos in there."
The security door creaked open from the inside.
Doris and Carol shut their mouths at once and turned away awkwardly.
I stood in the doorway holding two big bags of trash.
My eyes were bloodshot, and my shirt collar was still wrinkled.
"Morning, Mrs. Whitaker, Mrs. Lawson."
I forced a stiff smile and set the trash bags down by the stairs.
Doris gave two dry laughs and hurried downstairs with her grocery basket.
I turned around, pushed the door open, and went back inside.
The living room was a wreck.
The couch cushions had been thrown on the floor, and a throw pillow lay by the sliding door to the balcony.
A glass on the coffee table had shattered into several pieces, and the spilled water had soaked into the gray rug.
Melissa sat at the dining table, staring coldly at her phone screen.
She had on a full face of makeup and the silk blouse she'd bought just last month.
Four-year-old Noah Bennett and Ruby hid behind the bedroom doorframe, watching us timidly.
Noah was still clutching half a cookie he hadn't finished.
"You really want to take it this far?"
I walked to the dining table and braced both hands on its surface.
Melissa didn't look up. Her finger swiped quickly across the screen.
"I'm not the one taking it anywhere. This life just doesn't work anymore."
She slapped her phone face-down on the table with a sharp crack.
"Two o'clock this afternoon. I'll see you at the County Clerk's Office."
I took a deep breath, bent down, picked up the broken glass from the floor, and dropped it in the trash can.
"We still owe six hundred thousand on the mortgage. If you file for divorce now, what happens to the kids?"
Melissa stood and picked up the leather purse beside her.
"I get the kids, and you walk away with nothing."
Her heels clicked as she went to the entryway and changed into her shoes for going out.
"This house is what you owe me anyway."
The door slammed shut.
The holiday wreath on the door shook with it.
Ruby ran over and wrapped her arms around my leg.
"Daddy, where's Mommy going?"
I crouched down and picked her up.
"Mommy's going to work. Daddy's going to make you breakfast."
I went into the kitchen and pulled open the fridge.
It was nearly empty. All that was left was half a bottle of expired milk and two wilted green onions.
Right then, my phone buzzed.
It was a bank charge alert.
Melissa's authorized-user credit card had just been swiped at Trade Center Plaza for eight thousand six hundred dollars.
I stared at the number on the screen, my fingers going cold.
Just last week, she'd told me we didn't have money for formula and taken five thousand dollars from me.
I called Melissa.
The phone rang six times before she picked up.
"What now? I'm busy."
"What's this eight thousand six hundred? Weren't you going to work?"
Mall background music drifted through the line.
"So what if I buy a few things for the new season? Isn't a woman allowed to take care of herself?"
"The kids' preschool tuition for next month still isn't paid!"
I couldn't keep my voice down and shouted it.
"That's your problem. A grown man who can't even come up with that little bit of money, and you've got the nerve to yell at me?"
She hung up on me.
All that was left in my ear was the dial tone.
At one in the afternoon, I took half the day off and went home to get the kids' birth certificates and family documents.
As I reached the turn of the second-floor stairs, I heard that my front door was wide open.
The sound of drawers and cabinets being ransacked came from inside.
I ran up the stairs.
Three people were standing in the living room.
Melissa's mother, my mother-in-law Linda Porter, was directing Melissa's younger brother, Kyle Porter, as he carried things out.
"Take that air purifier too. Mel bought it."
Linda pointed at the machine in the corner.
Kyle picked up the purifier, turned, and found himself face to face with me in the doorway.
"Oh. Lucas is back."
Kyle set the purifier down and said it flatly, not bothering to sound friendly or unfriendly.
I walked in and looked at the drawers, turned inside out and left in a mess.
"Mom, what are you doing?"
Linda dusted off her hands, turned around, and gave me a cold look.
"What are we doing? Mel's divorcing you, so we're here to help her pack."
"The divorce isn't final yet. This is still my home." I pointed at the door. "Put those things down."
"Your home?"
Linda's voice shot up an octave as she marched up to me.
"If our Mel hadn't been blind back then, would she ever have married a broke loser like you?"
"She gave you a pair of boy-girl twins, and you can't even bring yourself to buy her one designer bag!"
Footsteps sounded in the hallway.
Doris and several other neighbors poked their heads in, peering inside.
The moment Linda saw she had an audience, her eyes went red, and she slapped her thigh hard.
"Neighbors, come here and tell me who's right!"
"My daughter has suffered with him for five years, and now she doesn't even dare buy herself a new piece of clothing."
"He goes out partying, and then he comes home and beats his wife!"
I stood frozen, both hands balled into tight fists.
"When have I ever hit her? I work overtime till ten every night!"
"You never hit her?" Kyle charged forward and grabbed me by the collar.
"Then how'd my sister get those bruises on her arm? You going to tell me you didn't pinch her?"
Outside the door, Doris sucked in a sharp breath.
"He really put his hands on her? He looks so mild-mannered. How could he hit a woman?"
"You'd never guess it from looking at him."
Another neighbor chimed in.
I wrenched Kyle's hand off me, so angry my voice shook.
"She got those bruises herself! She slipped in the bathroom two days ago and hit the tub. I'm the one who carried her on my back to the community clinic to get medicine!"
"Bullshit!" Kyle jabbed a finger at my nose. "The people at the community clinic said it themselves. Somebody pinched her!"
I took out my phone and pulled up my call history.
Chapter 2
“If you don't believe me, check the records. Two nights ago at nine o'clock, I'm the one who called 911!”
My mother-in-law knocked the phone out of my hand.
It hit the floor tiles, and cracks spidered across the screen.
“Oh, so now you think you're in the right? Not only do you hit her, you also hold back her household money!”
“She has to borrow from us just to buy groceries!”
I bent down and picked up the phone. The screen still lit up.
I opened my photos and pulled up the screenshot of the $8,600 credit card charge.
“Borrowing for groceries? She just charged $8,600 on clothes at Trade Center Plaza this morning!”
I held the phone out to the neighbors.
Before Doris could get a good look at it,
the sound of crying came from outside the door.
Melissa walked in wearing an old, faded jacket, her hair a mess.
Her eyes were red and swollen, and there wasn't a trace of makeup on her face. She looked like a completely different person from the polished woman I'd seen that morning.
She went straight to her mother, threw herself into her arms, and burst into sobs.
“Mom, stop. Let's just go. I don't want anything anymore.”
“As long as I can get out of this house alive, that's enough.”
Accusations rose from the crowd at once.
“Lucas, you've gone too far.”
“You've driven your wife to this, and you're still trying to fool people with a fake screenshot?”
“What a shame. What's going to happen to those two kids?”
I stood there, watching Melissa sob.
She had buried her face in her mother's shoulder.
Her body shook with each gasping breath.
Three o'clock that afternoon, the Community Mediation Office.
Melissa and I sat on opposite sides of a long table.
Director Jordan Whitaker of the mediation office sat between us, holding a thermos.
“Lucas, Melissa, isn't there any problem you two can't work out behind closed doors?”
Director Whitaker blew on her tea and glanced at Melissa.
Melissa kept her head down, twisting her fingers together, tears dripping one by one onto the backs of her hands.
“Jordan, I really can't go on like this.”
Her voice was hoarse.
“He doesn't just treat me like a suspect. He's even taken my paycheck card.”
“He only gives me $2,000 a month for living expenses, and I still have to pay the water, electric, and gas bills.”
Director Whitaker frowned and turned to me.
“Lucas, that's on you. What man these days still controls his wife's paycheck?”
I took a stack of printed bank statements out of my bag.
It was a thick pile, and I slapped it down hard on the table.
“Director Whitaker, take a look at this.”
“These aren't my statements. These are her online payday loan bills from the past six months.”
“She got hooked on online gambling and lost $400,000 in six months.”
“I hold on to her paycheck card because I'm paying off her debts. If I didn't, she would have bled this family dry a long time ago!”
I pointed at the dense rows of charges on the statements.
Director Whitaker froze, then reached over and took the statements.
Melissa's head jerked up. A flash of panic crossed her eyes, but tears quickly covered it.
“You're lying! That was... you forced me to borrow that money!”
She shot to her feet, pointing at me and crying out loud.
“You lost money in the stock market and used my ID to borrow from loan sharks!”
“And now you want to pin it all on me!”
She hurried over and grabbed Director Whitaker's arm.
“Jordan, you have to stand up for me. He's using the kids to threaten me. He said if I don't take on his debt, he'll never let me see Noah and Ruby again.”
Director Whitaker looked at the statements in her hand, then at Melissa, who was crying so hard she could barely breathe.
The statements really did show only borrowing and repayments. There was no way to tell where the money had ultimately gone.
“Lucas, what's really going on with these bills?”
Director Whitaker's face darkened.
I took a deep breath, holding back my anger.
“All the transfer records are on her old phone. She always kept it locked in a drawer and wouldn't even tell me the passcode.”
“Have her bring out that old phone. One look, and you'll know exactly where the money went!”
I stared at Melissa.
She took a step back and covered her face.
“That phone's been gone for ages! It was stolen last month when I took the kids to the amusement park.”
“So what am I supposed to prove anything with now?”
“You knew I had no evidence. That's the only reason you dare to slander me so shamelessly!”
Outside the mediation room, a few older women who had come in on errands stopped and pointed at us through the glass door.
Director Whitaker sighed and pushed the statements back to me.
“Lucas, everything comes down to evidence.”
“You can't accuse your own wife without any proof.”
“Here's what we'll do. Both of you go home and cool off for a few days. The children are innocent in all this.”
Director Whitaker stood up and went to the door to open it and see us out.
In the second she turned her back,
I saw it clearly.
Melissa lowered the hands covering her face.
Tears still clung to the corners of her eyes, but her lips quickly tugged upward.
It was a cold smile she didn't even bother to hide.
That smile was full of mockery and triumph.
The next second, when Director Whitaker turned back around,
Melissa had already slipped back into a look of heartbroken grief.
Chapter 3
Three days later, in a conference room at Midtown Law Group.
My lawyer, Frank Harris, and I sat on the left side of the long table.
Melissa and her lawyer, a man in gold-rimmed glasses, sat on the right.
On the table lay a property settlement agreement and a draft of the divorce complaint.
"Let's get straight to the point."
Gold-Rimmed Glasses pushed his frames up his nose.
"My client's demands are very clear."
"First, the three-bedroom apartment on Liberty Street must be transferred into her name."
"Second, custody of the two children, Noah and Ruby, goes to her, and you will pay twelve thousand dollars a month in child support until they turn eighteen."
"Third, the fifty thousand dollars in joint marital savings goes to her as compensation."
Frank pushed the draft agreement toward the middle of the table.
"That's not happening." He tapped the tabletop.
"The down payment on the Liberty Street apartment was one point two million dollars, and every cent of it came from Lucas's parents selling their house back home."
"There's a clear record of the bank transfer. That money is Lucas's separate property. How could it possibly all go to you?"
Gold-Rimmed Glasses gave a cold laugh and slid a sheet of paper out of his folder.
"It's true his parents paid the down payment. But in the third year of the marriage, my client's name was added to the deed."
"Under the law, that counts as a gift to her, which makes it marital property."
"Given his misconduct during the marriage, including domestic abuse and the transfer and concealment of assets, my client's claim to the entire property is reasonable and fully within the law."
I gripped the arms of my chair so hard my knuckles went white.
"I told you, I never abused her! And I never moved any money!"
"She's the one who's buried in debt!"
Gold-Rimmed Glasses tapped the case file on the table.
"Sir, the court only looks at evidence."
"My client has a medical injury report from the community clinic, a record from the Community Mediation Office, and statements from the neighbors."
"As for these gambling debts you claim, there's no evidence of any actual money trail to back them up."
He leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest.
"If you insist on going to court, we won't stop at the terms above."
"We'll also petition the court to garnish your wages, so the online payday loans you took out in my client's name get paid off first."
The conference room was so quiet I could hear the air conditioner blowing.
Frank leaned toward me and lowered his voice. "Lucas, this looks bad for us. Her name on the deed is a serious weak spot, and public opinion and the witnesses are all on her side."
I ignored him and stared hard at Melissa across the table.
She wore a tasteful business suit today, her hair pinned up without a strand out of place.
She was calmly sipping warm water from a paper cup.
"I don't need the apartment."
I ground the words out through clenched teeth, one at a time.
"I'll take on the debt by myself, too."
Melissa's hand paused around her cup. She lifted her eyes to look at me.
"But I have one condition."
I pointed at the second item in the agreement.
"Custody of Noah and Ruby goes to me."
"I'm the one who raised them. You've never taken care of them!"
Melissa set down her cup and let out a contemptuous snort.
"Lucas, what are you going to raise them with?"
"You're drowning in debt, you won't have the apartment, you won't even have a place to live."
"How could any judge give two four-year-olds to you?"
She stood and looked down at me.
"Besides, the kids are going to choose me."
"If you don't believe me, I'll see you in court."
She turned and walked out of the conference room.
The sound of her high heels on the wooden floor felt like they were stepping on my ribs.
Chapter 4
Two months later, Courtroom 3, District Family Court.
In the gallery sat Melissa's parents, her brother, and several neighbors from our building.
This was the final hearing.
The judge struck the gavel once.
"In the divorce case of Plaintiff Melissa Porter versus Defendant Lucas Bennett, the court will now conduct a final review of the custody of the children."
Two court officers led Noah and Ruby into the courtroom.
The kids wore neat preschool uniforms and held each other's hands tight.
Seeing so many people, Noah shrank behind Ruby in fear.
Melissa shot to her feet, her eyes instantly red, and hurried to the railing.
"Noah, Ruby, come here to Mommy."
She held out her arms, her voice thick with tears.
"Mommy missed you so much."
In the gallery, my mother-in-law dabbed at her eyes too.
"Poor babies, suffering with that heartless father of theirs."
The neighbors sighed one after another, their accusing stares stabbing at me like needles.
I stood up as well and took two steps forward.
"Noah. Ruby."
I called their names, my throat so dry it hurt.
I didn't dare say more, afraid I'd scare them.
The judge took off her reading glasses and looked at the two small figures standing in the middle of the room.
She softened her voice.
"Noah, Ruby, tell the judge."
"Daddy and Mommy aren't going to live together anymore. Who do you want to live with?"
The whole courtroom went quiet.
Melissa stared hard at the two children, her eyes full of certainty.
Before the hearing, she'd taken the kids out for a big kids' meal and bought them a pile of toys.
She knew Noah was the most timid. All she had to do was cry, and Noah would go with her.
Everyone assumed the four-year-old boy-girl twins, who normally clung to their mother, would throw themselves into Melissa's arms without hesitation.
The neighbors in the gallery were already getting ready to praise the unbreakable bond between a mother and her children.
But my daughter, Ruby, didn't move.
She even held on tighter to Noah, who'd started to step toward Melissa.
Ruby tipped her head back, her clear, bright eyes on the judge up on the bench.
"Ms. Judge, can I show you a secret?"
Her voice rang out crisp and clear, echoing through the hushed courtroom.
Melissa's expression shifted. The tears on her face hadn't even dried, but her brows were already drawing together.
"Ruby, don't say silly things. Come here."
There was a sharp edge in Melissa's voice.
Ruby ignored her. She reached a small hand into the pocket of her overalls and pulled something out.
It was an old phone with a cracked edge around the screen.
I froze.
It was the phone I'd searched for and never found. The old phone Melissa claimed she'd "lost a long time ago."
"A secret even Daddy doesn't know."
Ruby held the old phone in both hands and raised it above her head.
The instant Melissa saw what it was, the color drained from her face until it was white as paper.
She shoved open the little gate in the railing and lunged at Ruby with no regard for anything.
"Give me that phone!" she shrieked, her voice cracking.
Two court officers moved in fast, one on each side, and pinned her in place.
"Plaintiff, control yourself! Return to your seat!" The judge brought the gavel down hard.
Held where she stood, Melissa kept struggling with everything she had, her terrified eyes locked on the old phone.
The court clerk walked over and took the phone from Ruby.
Ruby pointed at the screen. "The password is my brother's birthday."
The clerk entered the password and connected the phone to the courtroom's big screen.
Every eye in the courtroom fixed on the screen.
The moment the video started, the only sound in the room was people sucking in sharp breaths.
Everyone froze.
In the gallery, Doris Whitaker's mouth fell open.
My mother-in-law's sobbing stopped dead, as if someone had grabbed her by the throat.
I stared at the big screen, my mind gone completely blank.
