Chapter 6 - The Man Who Smiled for Judges
Richard appeared on the video hearing in a navy suit and a pale blue tie.
He had chosen the tie carefully.
Clare knew that because it was the one he wore when he wanted strangers to trust him.
He smiled at the judge.
Not too much.
Just enough to look wounded.
“Your Honor, I am not trying to punish my wife,” he said. “I am trying to locate my child and bring stability back into her life.”
Clare stared at the screen from Elena’s conference room.
Gabriel waited outside. He had offered to leave entirely. Clare asked him to stay in the hallway with Maya and Leo.
Richard continued.
“My wife has been under severe stress. She left her profession. She has isolated herself. She has now traveled across state lines with our three-year-old and attached herself to a man neither of us knew twenty-four hours ago.”
Elena muted their microphone.
“He’s good,” she said.
“I know.”
“That doesn’t make him right.”
The judge asked about the restraining order.
Richard’s attorney called it “a temporary misunderstanding based on an argument.”
Clare’s hands clenched.
Elena submitted the police reports and the false order emailed to Miami authorities.
Richard denied sending it.
“Someone may have acted out of concern after I informed family members,” he said.
“Someone with your proposed-order draft?” Elena asked.
His smile tightened.
Then his attorney produced screenshots.
Texts supposedly sent by Clare to a friend.
I CAN MAKE RICHARD PAY IF I TAKE MAYA.
I JUST NEED SOMEONE RICH ENOUGH TO HELP ME.
Clare stood halfway out of her chair.
“I never wrote that.”
The judge warned her not to interrupt.
Richard looked down with perfect sadness.
That hurt more than anger.
After forty minutes, the judge ruled.
Maya would remain with Clare under the existing temporary order.
But Clare had to return to New York within five days for an evidentiary hearing.
No direct contact between Clare and Richard.
All communication through counsel.
The hearing ended.
Clare stared at the blank screen.
“He got what he wanted,” she whispered.
Elena shook her head. “He didn’t get Maya.”
“He got me back in New York.”
Outside the conference room, Maya sat on the carpet beside Leo.
Gabriel rose when Clare entered.
“How bad?”
“I have five days.”
His expression hardened. “Then we use five days.”
Clare almost snapped that there was no we.
Then Elena walked out holding printed copies of Richard’s screenshots.
She set them on the table.
“These are fake,” Clare said.
“I believe you.”
“How do we prove it?”
May you like
Elena tapped the bottom corner of the page.
“By finding out why the time stamp says 8:14 p.m. on a phone Clare can prove was smashed at 7:52.”
