Laying Down the Law

Chapter-20

When the court case for Anya's custody and restraining orders resolution was heard, my attorney had done me a solid. Owing to Priscilla's recalcitrance during mediation, the judge spoke with Anya in his chambers. When he learned that Priscilla's boyfriend had attacked Anya twice, he questioned the soundness of the mother's judgment. I was given primary custody while Priscilla could have supervised visits every other weekend. If, after three months of supervised visits there were no incidences, then supervision would no longer be required. One stipulation was that, under no circumstances, was Brock ever to be allowed access to Anya. Priscilla accepted her defeat but was relieved that the restraining orders had been lifted.

A week later, the initial divorce hearing was a farce. It was patently obvious that Priscilla's high-powered attorney managed to orchestrate our case to be heard by the judge who would be most sympathetic to their side. Over Donald's strong objection, I was ordered to undergo twelve intense two-hour marriage counseling sessions, three times per week over the next four weeks. Donald struck out again when the judge indicated that Priscilla would select the counselor. I had no say. The judge also made it clear to me that I would be found in contempt if the counselor didn't feel as though I was exerting a good faith effort during the sessions. I knew it was going to be a rough road when I looked up the counselor's name on the business card provided to me. Dr. Cassandra Strickland was a renowned feminist whose main focus was deprogramming toxic masculinity. She was based out of Portland Oregon and flown here for our special sessions on the Allerton jet. I found no credentials qualifying her as a marriage counselor. However, my attorney recommended I hold my ground but appear cooperative to get through the sessions.

During the first session, Cassandra endeavored to hypnotize me. I'd never been hypnotized before and wasn't expecting it. Avoiding being hypnotized by a trained professional would require intense effort on my part, so I concentrated lovingly on Connie the entire time. My focus was so engaged that I had to be mindful of arousal to preclude embarrassing myself. Unsuccessful at hypnotizing me, Cassandra alternated ensuing sessions between deprogramming my masculinity and mandating that I acknowledge Priscilla's expressions of love and devotion. At every opportunity when Cassandra asked me how I felt, I emotionlessly stated that I no longer loved Priscilla. I acknowledged that, as Anya's mother, I'll have to deal with her in that capacity but any feelings I once held for her are long dead and cannot be revived. I wished her every happiness in her future endeavors. I was insincere but had to appear cooperative to some extent to prevent being found in contempt by the judge. During the last few sessions, Cassandra berated me in professional terms but I refused to budge or show any inclination toward reconciliation. The twelve sessions were long and torturous to endure but I survived them intact.

Three weeks after the exhausting counseling sessions, my divorce hearing, which Donald had relentlessly pressed to schedule, finally arrived. Priscilla acted as though she had lost her best friend, acknowledging that I would no longer be her husband. Daphne was angry that a nobody like me had bested her. That notwithstanding, they were unable to undermine the terms of the prenup. I was awarded 13.5 million dollars, a million for each year prorated. Donald persuaded the judge to order Priscilla to make good on the money transfer within twenty-four hours. I was suddenly wealthier than I had ever expected to be. Once the division of assets had been handled, the judge sounded the gavel announcing the death knell of our marriage. I was unimaginably relieved.

Connie stuck by my side throughout the entire arduous process. She and Anya were growing closer as well. There was an ineffable quality to Connie that nearly overwhelmed me. It was a purity of heart and soul I had never before encountered. I was drawn to her like a moth to a flame. As much as my heart wanted me to go all in with her, my brain argued for assurances that this was not simply a flash-in-the-pan rebound relationship, and called for temperance. Connie wisely never pressured me. We'd exchanged sincere words of love but neither of us wanted to derail what we were building by uncomfortable pushing. We had scarce little private time to ourselves with Anya's continuous presence which neither of us begrudged.

Daphne's expensive attorneys argued profusely against the criminal insider trading allegations levied at Daphne and Priscilla at their appellate trial and seemed to present a credible scenario. The jury was considering the plausibility of his presentation until the D.A. took command countering with facts that incontrovertibly proved beyond a shadow of a doubt what they had done numerous times. Their expert witness echoed my work delineating the fallibility of Priscilla's software programming proving that it was no more than a smokescreen to obscure the manual trades. Their pattern was to trade OTM Options (Out of the Money) that would pay off more abundantly than direct stock trades. Since there is a five-year statute of limitations on insider trading activity, they were being prosecuted solely for the most recent five years. The prosecutor detailed an average of five insider trades per year, twenty-five total cumulatively.

Daphne and Priscilla were found guilty on all counts and were both sentenced to nine months per insider trade sending them to prison for eighteen years and nine months. In addition to prison time, penalty fines were also adjudicated. It was shown that over the last five years, their trades resulted in cumulative profits of three-hundred million dollars added to their bottom line. Rules dictated that penalties cannot be levied more than three times the profit gained. Since their assets were presently valued at eight-hundred million, a hundred million shy of the maximum allowable penalty, the state was ordered to liquidate their entire estate and personal holdings. The pair was immediately remanded into custody to serve their sentences. I almost felt bad for Priscilla, almost. Anya still loved her mother, despite everything she'd learned and knew about her. But she acknowledged that her mother had chosen to follow in Daphne's footsteps and needed to pay her debt to society. The Allerton dynasty had fallen and no longer existed.

The icing on the cake was added when Brock appeared in court to face his charges. He was found guilty of felony assault with a deadly weapon, vis-à-vis the bat, and aggravated assault inflicting serious physical injury. He was simultaneously convicted of attempting to assault Anya, though I'd stopped him. He was sentenced to twenty-four years total but was told he could receive time off for good behavior. His lifestyle was about to be drastically altered. Anya had no mixed feelings about him, nor a spec of love for her biological father. She was glad to see him taken away in handcuffs. He would be receiving no visits from her.

When I reassessed my finances, I combined all of my accounts into one management portfolio. During my marriage to Priscilla, of my approximate three-hundred thousand dollars of annual income from Laughlin Solutions, I only spent around fifty thousand for household expenses. That enabled me to set aside 250 grand per year for ten years, accumulating 2.5 million from my earnings plus interest. I'd stashed my earnings in a safe offshore account. 13-1/2 plus 2-1/2 comes to a cool sixteen million dollars total to maintain our standard of living. When things had settled down a bit after all legalities had been dealt with, Anya hit me with a surprise.

"Daddy, I have a huge favor to ask of you. Will you help me?"

I quickly replied, "Of course, sweetheart. You're not old enough to drive yet, so I don't think it's a car. What's this favor you want to ask of me?"

Connie grinned big and nodded her encouragement to Anya.

"Well, daddy, whether or not you think what you did saved my life, I believe you did, and that's all that counts. Daddy, plain and simple, I owe you my life. I don't take such things lightly. I've talked to Connie about this a lot and she thinks what I have in mind is wonderful."

"I'm not sure where this is going, honey but it sounds as if you two are ganging up on me," I confessed.

"Not exactly. Daddy, I want to petition the court to change my last name from Allerton to Laughlin. The Allerton name has never meant to me what mom and grandma wanted it to be. I'm a daddy's girl through and through. I would be the proudest girl in the world to become Anya Laughlin. I realize that if or when I get married, it may change again then but at least until that happens, I want to be called a Laughlin. Will you help me do it?"

I was taken aback. It never occurred to me that this request would ever be made. If a person could explode from pride, I would have been vaporized. I was flabbergasted.

"I'm not sure if we can do that or not, sweetheart. As much as I'd love you to bear my name, I haven't researched the legal requirements, plus, your mother would have to sign off on it, I'm sure, and she isn't very likely to let you give up the Allerton name," I speculated.

"Oh, Connie's already researched it before I considered asking you. Tell him, Connie," Anya insisted.

Connie looked at me nervously but relayed what she'd unearthed, "Gordon, as you know, it has never been legally established that anyone, other than you, is her father. Her birth certificate identifies you as her legal father. Therefore, changing her surname from Allerton to Laughlin isn't a big deal. It's not as if you are adopting her. You're already established as her de facto father. But you're correct, all three of you, Priscilla, Anya and you would have to sign the petition for the name change."

"Well, there's your sticking point right there," I offered. "Your mother would never agree to such a thing."

"Oh, yes she will," Anya disagreed. "If she refuses, I will never visit her in prison nor will I ever speak to her again for as long as I live. If she wants to have me in her life in any way, then she'll agree to this change or lose me forever."

"Wow, remind me never to get on your bad side," I chuckled. "Where do we start?"

"I have the forms right here," Connie advised. "Anya's already signed them, once you do then she'll take them to Priscilla for her signature. After that, it's a simple matter of paying the filing fees and waiting."

Priscilla reacted exactly how Anya expected her to. However, she realized that if she refused, she'd never hear from her daughter again, and that was unconscionable to her. Besides, she'd probably take the name of her new husband one day anyway. It's not as if the name Allerton carried much weight in high society any longer. Reluctantly, she scribbled her signature, and the notary made it legal. Nine weeks later my daughter's name legally became Anya Sharon Laughlin. We went out to celebrate. I danced with both of my ladies and felt as though I owned the world, not for any amount of money I may have but for the relationships I had with two of the most important people in the world to me.

While dancing with Connie, I said, "You have no idea what your friendship has meant to me. I've endured so much drama and tragedy yet you've stood by me every step of the way from the very beginning without fail. Thank you."

Connie replied, "Friendship means very little when it's convenient. This may be one-sided, but you're the best thing that has ever happened to me. I'm the happiest I've ever been in my life since becoming involved with you and Anya."

"I assure you it's not one-sided, Connie. Our friendship has blossomed into a love so real I can almost touch it."

She retorted, "To quote Julia Roberts in the movie Notting Hill, I'm just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her."

I kissed Connie on the dance floor so passionately that its intensity reminded me of two lines from the poem Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe. "But we loved with a love that was more than love— I and my Annabel Lee— With a love that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven, coveted her and me."

Anya was ecstatic when I proposed to Connie six weeks later. We were no longer concerned about rebound. After everything we'd been through, there was no doubt that we were meant to be together. Anya served as her maid of honor. After his prolonged absence, Thomas Allerton reappeared from his hiatus and served as my best man. Were it not for him, my life would have been abject misery. We honeymooned for two weeks in the Cayman Islands. I can't imagine a better lover than Connie. I was tickled that she liked my regular boxers just as they were.

Thomas purchased a home near ours so that he could remain involved in Anya's life. He loved his granddaughter and Anya had a new healthy respect for him. No longer interested in high society or the high-brow clubs, our memberships lapsed and were not renewed. There were many other entertainment venues in the big city to occupy our time when needed.

Anya graduated from our homeschooling high school with honors. Even at her young age, she was accepted at M.I.T. to pursue a degree in the same field as mine. She worked for me in my company in hopes of taking over the reins from me one day. She graduated M.I.T. at the age of eighteen with her whole life ahead of her. She had been dating a young man who she said reminded her a lot of me. True to her word, Anya visited her mother, Priscilla, every three months on average. The dynamic was vastly different now and her mother became more down to earth enjoying her daughter and encouraging her to the best of her ability. However, Anya declined her mother's urging to visit her grandmother, Daphne, as well. I could see no reason to encourage her otherwise.