Over The Top

I couldn't stop myself, "she is unaware of notarized documents that she signed ten times in the past 20 years. How could that be?' He looked at her with hate in his eyes and said, "maybe she is that stupid."

Saul was flabbergasted to say the least as he watched his $60 million flying out the closed window.

After partially digesting this new information Saul found his tongue, "Obviously, my client is unaware of these updated documents. We would like to adjourn this meeting until we have time to review them.

Sarah said, "of course you can have another two weeks and we all agreed to reconvene then, but this was our mandatory pretrial hearing so if there are further delays, we will proceed to court with no more meetings."

Again, I could not contain myself, I hope you aren't being paid on a contingency basis Saul, because if you are you have a serious problem." I chuckled as I watched Saul stiffen at that remark.

As soon as they were alone on the elevator Saul turned on Stephanie, "what the fuck is wrong with you? I asked repeatedly if there was an update and you said no. Now I find there are ten of them plus a video of you claiming to understand everything you were fucking well signing."

"Saul, I really didn't remember signing those documents. Those meetings are always so boring I hate having to go to them. It's hard to pay attention to everything they talk about in them, and I always knew Tim would take care of me and wouldn't have me sign something that would cause me problems." Steph said.

"Saul was yelling now, "you stupid, stupid bitch, you don't think these prenups are going to cause you problems? Your settlement just went from somewhere around $250 million to about $20,000. Do you think that hurts?"

"Oh Shit" Stephanie said, "what do we do now?"

"We go back to my office and sit down with some of my partners and come up with a new strategy" he said.

Back at the law office Saul called a meeting with his four partners to discuss the latest developments. They couldn't come up with much other than using delaying tactics to extend the case nineteen months until the prenup expired.

They knew there was a tape of the entire Hawaii escapade and were sure they could have it thrown when it was presented as evidence. They would request a four-week continuance to review it in order to contest its validity. After that they would have the judge compel counseling. They thought they could get five or six months of counseling after a week or possibly two of arguing it's necessity. They thought they could come up with other delaying tactics as the trial continued. Still delaying for a full 19 months was going to be a reach.

Unfortunately, the entire meeting was recorded to the cloud by Stephanie's cell phone. Luke listened to the meeting that night while having dinner at home. He decided to put together a collage of outtakes from the videotape that Sarah could use to counter Saul's arguments for continuances to delay the proceeding.

When Saul objected to the tape being admitted to evidence, Sarah played the part of the tape where Stephanie said that she not only didn't care who saw it but also planned on giving a copy to Luke. After that the tape was admitted.

Saul was very nasty in his questioning of Donna Ruoff and Theresa.

He kept Donna on the stand for hours practically demanding that she and I had been having sex since the day we met. He even implied that Emma was not only conceived out of wedlock but also born without a father in her life. Even though Donna could tell her wedding day he insisted it never happened. When she offered to go home and get her old marriage certificate, he dismissed it as if it never happened. More than once he all but called her a whore or a slut. He appeared to take pleasure in this line of questioning. He had Donna in tears twice. Despite Sarah Shafter's repeated objections and the judge sustaining them he kept coming back to badger her further. Finally Judge Smyth told him he was repeating the same questions using different words and instructed him to either move to a new line of questioning or release the witness.

Sarah did a recross mostly just to calm her down. It was obvious that Saul had not done any damage other than upsetting Donna.

He behaved similarly with Theresa starting out by asking, "why did you move into your father's apartment?

She answered, "my mother and I had an argument and she slapped me."

He said, "isn't it true you moved in with your dad because he offered to buy you a new car?

Theresa said, "no" she again tried to explain why.

He interrupted her and said, "just answer the question."

He badgered her with more questions implying that she moved because of monetary or expensive gift promises from me.

"When she said if that's true, I haven't seen them yet."

He said, "Of course not, the trial isn't over yet.

Sarah stood and said, "Your Honor, was there a question there?"

The judge said, "refrain from proselytizing Mr. Rose and just ask questions."

Then he went back to the argument. "Isn't it true that the argument with your mother was because she found out you had been sleeping with Duncan Dean for the at least the past year,"

Sarah put her hand on my arm to restrain me because I nearly came out of me chair. She whispered to me that this was all to goad me, and he wanted the reaction I almost gave.

Theresa responded, "it was certainly not about that."

Again, she tried to explain the argument, but he stopped her again.

Next, he asked her, "you and your long-term boyfriend Duncan Dean recently broke up, is that true?"

"Was that because you found out he has been sleeping with your friend Carolyn Cree?"

"Certainly not," she answered.

"But he is sleeping with her, isn't she?"

"Not to my knowledge" she responded.

"Isn't it true that Mr. Dean discovered you had been sleeping with a number of other boys at school, and that is why he turned to Carolyn?"

With that question pandemonium erupted. Sarah and the bailiff had to restrain me. All I could do was shout, "there is only one slut in this courtroom, and we all know who that is, don't we Stephanie".

The judge was banging on his gavel to restore order and yelled at Saul, "Counselor you are two inches from contempt of court, one more question like that and you will be an overnight guest of the state, am I clear Mr. Rose?"

He said, "yes, Your Honor," but he got his dig in.

At this time, I should point out that during Theresa's testimony Stephanie did not once look at her. It was clear to me she knew this line of questioning was coming and although embarrassed by it and even though she knew it was untrue made no attempt to stop it.

Theresa amazingly had kept her cool and when things settled down, she said, "Mr. Rose, I have never had sex with anyone."

"How do we know that" he asked.

"Perhaps you could subpoena my gynecologist and she could examine my hymen for you." That drew several chuckles.

Trying to save himself he said, "well I've seen the way you look at me at the country club."

The judge was about to caution Saul again when Theresa said, "your Honor may I respond to that?

The judge nodded his head yes and she said, "Mr. Rose, I may have given you looks that were dirty, but they were by no means sexual. In fact, Mr. Rose, you make me sick to my stomach the way you look at me. It feels like you are undressing me with your eyes. Many of my girlfriends feel the same way, including Carolyn Cree. So, you know Mr. Rose a large part of the reason I moved out of my mother's home is because she chose you as her lawyer. The thought of seeing you in my own home on a regular basis made me ill."

Saul was stunned at having the tables turned on him like that. All he could say was, "move to strike, Your Honor."

"I will take it under advisement counselor. The way you've questioned the last two witnesses makes me think it may be appropriate to leave it in."

Saul tried to protest but all the judge said was he was thinking about it.

During Sarah's cross Theresa was clearly despondent so Sarah asked, "is there something you would like to say for the record Theresa?"

"Yes, there is," she said.

"Go ahead," Sarah said.

"Of all the people in the world my mother knows that I am not promiscuous. I cannot believe she did not tell Mr. Rose that." She then looked at Stephanie and said, "Mom. Ever since we had that argument before I moved out, I have tried very hard not to be involved in your divorce. I have worked hard to remain neutral and have refused to discuss the trial with either of you. That you would allow that slime to question me like that really makes me wonder what you have become.

You tricked me into helping you to betray my dad. You lied to me about your motives and almost cost me my relationship with my father only for your own selfish wants, I can't even call them needs, just wants. Three little children will grow up without a father because of you. Have you no compassion, no conscience? The thought that you allowed your lawyer to question me like that disgusts me. After this I don't care if I ever see you again."

Both Stephanie and Theresa were crying and there were tears in my eyes too.

There was one exchange where Saul asked the Judge to compel counseling. The Judge said. "Mr. Rose, your client clearly said on the videotape that she would agree to counseling but only as a ruse so she could file for a divorce when Mr. Gibson least expected it. I will not compel counseling in the face of an outrageous statement like that."

"Frankly Mr. Rose this prenup is one of the best I've ever seen. I am denying all your objections to Mr. Gibson's audio tape, he had a perfect right to tape it in his own home. Also Mrs. Gibson not only consented to the video tape in Hawaii she said in the tape that she wanted Mr. Gibson to see it." He said. Your Honor, Mrs. Gibson was inebriated at the time she made that statement." Objected Saul.

"Mr. Rose your client was inebriated because she ingested illegal drugs. I am sure you are familiar with the Latin term 'in vino veritas" The judge commented.

"Your honor that hardly applies here." said Saul.

"I think that it very much applies here counselor, but regardless of that your client does not have clean hands. By imbibing in an illegal substance, she was breaking the law. I am not going to reward her by dismissing a statement she made while intoxicated. Especially since it falls in line with so many other statements, she has made both before the trip and during the trip.

"Mrs. Gibson, I have a question for you." He said.

"Yes, Your honor." Stephanie said.

"Explain to me please what leg is it that you think you have to stand on in this proceeding?"

Stephanie meekly said, "I never wanted a divorce, sir."

"Do you take stupid Pills then?" he asked.

Saul jumped up shouting "Your Honor." Indignantly.

"You are right counselor, that was very inappropriate. I apologize Mrs. Gibson." He said. "I can understand signing a prenuptial agreement, but how do you sign an update every other year for twenty years and not remember any of them. Not only that Mrs. Gibson you were given a copy of all the updates. All you had to do was look through your own records. Your irresponsibility wasted a lot of the court's time.

He then said, "unless there is anything else I am ready to rule."

Saul stood and said, "Your Honor, normally legal fees in a divorce are paid for with marital assets. In this case there are minimal marital assets, so I request that Mr. Gibson be responsible for Mrs. Gibson's legal fees in this case."

"Mr. Rose didn't you take this case under contingency?" the judge asked.

"Yes, your honor at Mrs. Gibson's insistence we took it on contingency."

"Wasn't it 21%?" Saul nodded yes.

"Are you suggesting that I award you 21% of Mr. Gibson's assets to settle your fee?" he asked.

Saul chuckled, "your Honor, as much as I would appreciate that, even I understand that would be outrageous. I think my firm can break even on this case if you would award us $100,000 in legal fees."

The judge looked at me and said, "what are your thoughts about that Mr. Gibson?"

I said, "Your Honor if after I ask Mrs. Gibson three or four questions under oath, if you feel I should pay those legal fees I will agree to it."

Saul and Stephanie conferred for a few minutes. Neither knew what the questions were but Stephanie was opposed to it. Saul on the other hand saw it as the only way he was getting paid for this fiasco and pushed her hard to agree.

Finally, he stood up and said, "my client agrees Your Honor."

Stephanie was duly sworn in and Luke began. "Today is Tuesday Mrs. Gibson, is that right?"

"Yes" Stephanie said.

"Would you please tell the court how many men you have had sex with in past eight days?"

Right away Saul saw where this was going and at once jumped up and said, "Your Honor, we respectfully withdraw our request for compensation by Mr. Gibson."

The judge also had an inkling of what was happening said, "that train just left the station Mr. Rose. Answer the question Mrs. Gibson."

Stephanie meekly said, "three."

"How many in the past thirty days?" I asked.

"Five." She answered.

"What were their names?" I asked.

Saul was now horrified, "Your Honor, this is completely unnecessary. We are no longer requesting Mr. Gibson pay our fees."

Ignoring him the judge instructed Stephanie to give the names.

Stephanie rattled off the names of Saul and his four partners.

Last question Stephanie, "did all of these men participate in meetings, conferences, telephone calls or any other discussions regarding this divorce proceeding or any other legal matters you may have presented to them?"

"Yes, they all did," she answered.

Luke withdrew two flash drives from his pocket and offered them to the judge. "Your honor" he said "six years ago Stephanie and I took Theresa on a six-day vacation to Disneyworld. When we arrived home, we found our house had been burglarized. After that, my company installed motion activated cameras throughout the property. We also trained cameras on some of our more valuable artworks. Throughout the house.

The flash drive marked #1 is a composite of all the cameras as they had motion. The drive marked #2 has copies of Steph having sex with each of the five men. I only made copies of the sex acts with each of them once. Also please note the cameras are trained on artwork and the other activities are ancillary.

Saul was apoplectic at this point and tried to attack Luke. Luke joined a gym six months earlier and had been working out regularly. He was in far better shape now than he had been in many years.

When Saul attacked him, he managed to land a glancing blow, but Luke swung back and caught Saul square in the nose breaking it at once. Since Luke's punch was in self-defense and seen by a judge no charges were proffered.

Although we hoped to finish that day the judge adjourned until the following day as Saul had to go to an urgent care center and get his nose fixed.

"Your motion that the plaintiff pay your legal fees is denied Mr. Rose." The judge said.

The judge did turn the evidence of Saul having sex with Stephanie over to the bar association and Saul and his partners were all looking at suspensions of six to twelve months each, which would probably cause the dissolution of that partnership.

The next day they reconvened at 10 AM. There wasn't much left to do except declare the division of assets. The only surprise to Luke was that the judge found that all gifts given to Stephanie were to be returned to her as they were presented as gifts and not as assets of the partnership. That amounted to about $150,000 in jewelry and certain antiques and artwork. He also found that since Stephanie had started collecting Fenton glass and antique China in her teens Luke was responsible for all the broken pieces in the sideboard. So, with everything including the $1000 a year of the marriage she came away with around $190,000.

The judge declared the marriage dissolved. It would still be about ninety days until the final documents were released.

At the conclusion of the trial Stephanie asked the judge to order a 30-minute meeting between herself and Luke.

The judge said, "now that the trial is over, I cannot order that. However, if Mr. Gibson is agreeable, I will provide a room for you.

Curious to hear what she was plotting now I agreed to the meeting, and we were led to a small conference room.

We sat there for a minute or two then I said, "you asked for this meeting Stephanie, what did you want to say?"

She started, "Luke I never realized how much that trip would hurt you. If I knew I never would have gone."

"I responded, "For the two weeks before you left, I asked you every single day not to go. You either ignored me or lost your temper, but you never wavered from your determination to go, no matter what I said."

I also said "Stephanie, on May 3^rd the day you told me your plans, I told you this would mean the end of our marriage and even if you agreed not to go right then we would have to go to intense therapy. You refused to go to therapy and told me I would never file for divorce and if I did you would leave me homeless."

"I never meant any of that Luke, surely you know that. Let's put all that behind us and work on getting back what we had before. We were always perfect together let's not throw all that away. I will more than make up for everything I've done." She said.

"We didn't throw anything away Stephanie, you did. This is your response to Stinson questioning if you ever gave me a blow job." Then I played an excerpt from the video."

"Oh, I took him in my mouth a few times over the years, but I never let him finish, and I certainly never tasted his semen. I must say yours is delicious, though." Then I played his next comment. "Yet you sucked me off our first time together, and I didn't even have to tell you to swallow." She tried to pass it off, "Oh Luke, that was just pillow talk."

"So, Stephanie," I asked, (actually, I was very angry and shouting), "how many times have I ever come in your mouth?

The silence was deafening.

"You probably have forgotten but the third time I asked you I was cut off from sex for three weeks because that was so disgusting a thing to ask for. After that I would ask every year or two but usually you didn't even answer me."

"Here is the next thing I want to ask you about, still yelling" As I played another excerpt.

"A week later, you had my ass."

I said, "Now I admit I was never that interested in anal. But I did ask about it a few times and you always made it clear that as far as you were concerned it was exit only. I accepted that. So please explain that?"

More silence

"Still no comment, okay here is another one. This one is when Stinson was admiring your newly shaved pussy.

"I'm sorry I couldn't do it sooner, but Luke has been asking me to shave it for years. I always told him only sluts did that, and I was afraid he would get suspicious if I did before, then he was so upset when I told him about the trip that I waited until Thursday night and shaved it after he fell asleep. Don't you worry, though I will keep it like this for you from now on."

"Not for me, Stephanie, for HIM." I screamed.

Still crickets from Stephanie.

"This next one is from May 3^rd the day you told me about your trip" I told her and played.

"Believe me I have not nor ever will do anything with him I have not done with you."

"That was a bald-faced lie, Stephanie. You were already giving him all the blow jobs and anal sex he wanted, any time he wanted them. The blow jobs you denied me for twenty fucking years. You have no idea how much that pisses me off every time I think about it."