The Nuclear Family Pt. 04

But what was interesting was that both Amy and myself were witnesses in my older brother's trial. He had been out on bail for a few months, fitted with a GPS tracker and banned from contacting us. During his trial, we sat in the courtroom listening to the proceedings where the prosecutor painted Brad as a vile human being with very few redeeming qualities. Words like bully, ignorant, incompetent and malicious were used. His defence tried to paint him as a victim of circumstance. However, it never went anywhere as everyone in attendance knew what a low life he was.

Other than his defence, the only other person supporting him was my father, Brad Sr. Once Dad noticed me sitting in the back of the room, he regularly looked at me and glared. Unlike Mum and Joanna, he had no intention of trying to mend the fence between us, and honestly, I was happy with that. Apparently, after closing Total Build, Dad had been unable to pick up another job after the media presented a scathing review of him in the wake of my fight with Blaine.

The other witness who was present was Georgia. My ex-wife wasn't looking great. Always relatively thin, she looked stressed and thinner now. Her posture told me of someone amid defeat, she sat with her back to us, and I am sure if I could see her eyes, they would be sunken and hollow.

Amy and I were not called to the witness stand. Our statements were formally submitted through George to the Police. Also, I don't think Brad's defence team would want to put us on the stand, lest we made matters worse. Georgia, however, wasn't so lucky. She was called and was sworn in.

As she took the stand for the first time, her eyes met mine, giving me a sad smile. I was right in that she had bags under her eyes.

The defence team started their questions.

"Mrs Other, can you state your relationship with the defendant."

"Mr Brad Other Jr is currently my husband," Georgia replied in a monotone, belying no emotion.

"And do you have any children with your husband?" He asked; he must have been going for some type of family defence.

"No, we have no children together," she replied flatly.

A small mummer went through a few people. I looked at Georgia, then to Brad, next to my father and lastly over at Amy, who was also confused.

Brad looked up at Georgia. The look he gave her was one of unhinged contempt. My father somehow managed to both smirk and glare at Georgia. For her part, Georgia never wavered.

"You mean you have a son and a daughter with your husband?" the defence lawyer tried to correct her.

"No, my son and daughter have different fathers," Georgia told the court. "However, my husband is not the biological father to either of them."

The volume of the murmurs increased, and the judge had to bang his gavel for silence. The lawyer looked at Georgia and cleared his throat. I felt panic for a moment. If Brad wasn't the father to either, is it possible that I was her son's father?

"Regardless of their origins, you parent two children with the defendant."

Georgia shook her head.

"No, you're incorrect. Yes, I am married to Brad. However, he is not, nor has he ever been, a parent to either of my children. He was never home, always out drinking or cheating on me." She winced and briefly looked at me. "The only time he was home and spoke to them was on a Sunday morning as he told them to go find something to do, telling them to get out of the room so he could watch sports on television. He called them the brats, so no, I don't view that he is a parent to my kids."

For the first time in years, I had compassion for Georgia. I was still reeling from the admission that her son was not my brother's. If I had known...

I expected she would defend Brad today. But obviously, some of what I had been told about how my family treated Georiga was true. It could not have been easy being burned by me, pretty much by her sisters, minimal contact with her mother, no communication from her birth father and what sounded like was close to abuse by my family.

The defence lawyer looked flummoxed. I don't think he expected a hostile witness. In the end, he murmured, "Your witness," to the prosecution, sitting down pretty much defeated. The prosecution stood a big smile on his face.

"Mrs Other, what is the status of the relationship with your husband?" he asked. The entire room was now rapt with attention to my ex-wife.

"We are currently going through a divorce," Georgia replied in a defeated tone. I sat back stunned, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, but I had not expected to hear it from Geogiras lips.

"Can you explain why you're getting a divorce?" the prosecution asked.

"Objection, the witness's marital status and reasons for divorce are irrelevant to this case." The defence argued weakly. I think he wanted to hear this drama as much as everyone else in the room.

"On the contrary," argued the prosecution. "One of the reasons we are here today is that Mrs Other is divorcing the defendant for violation of her privacy which is one of the charges levelled at the defendant."

They both looked at the judge.

"Overruled, the witness will answer the question."

Georgia again looked over at me; I stared back. I felt Amy's hand encircle mine and squeeze in support. Georgia looked at Brad, my father and then back at the prosecutor.

She sighed, "There are many reasons why I am divorcing my husband, chief among them is that I never loved him."

There was a hushed but collective gasp from the room. "When I fell pregnant with the son everyone through was Brads', I was married to another man. I was having an affair with Brad, and when that other man left me, I married Brad when encouraged by his parents."

"And who was the other man?" the prosecutor asked. I felt Amy's hand squeeze mine again, and Georgia again glanced at me.

"It was Brad's younger brother Robbie Other," she said with a strong note of shame.

"So you had an affair with your husband's older brother. Then your son is the son of your ex-husband, but he found out, divorced you, and you married your current husband?"

Georgia again looked at me, longing in her eyes, but there was a sadness. Worse, it wasn't the usual sadness that I saw in Georgia in the few times we saw each other. There was a pain there that ran deeper. A hurt and a pain that she held that I still had not heard of, but I was about to.

"No, neither brother is the father of my son." She replied, looking back to the prosecutor.

For a moment, no one said anything; everyone was stunned.

I looked at my brother, the veins on his neck pulsing; this was news to him. He honestly thought that Brad Junior the second was his biological son.

I looked at my father; in a room full of people, he was smiling, calm, serene even.

Fuck!

The defence found his voice, "So who is your son's father if it is neither your ex-husband, the younger brother of your current husband, who you married when he found out?"

I looked at Georgia. I looked at Brad. I looked at my father as Georgia opened her mouth and the entire courtroom held a collective breath.

"Their father..." Georgia whispered.

At the utterance of those two words, pandemonium erupted. Suddenly everyone was on their feet yelling. I was surprised to find I was one of them. I was screaming at my father, but my words were lost in the noise everyone else was making.

Georgia just sat there.

In the end, it took fifteen minutes and a handful of security guards to return the order to the court. I glared at my father. I didn't think my hatred for the man could get any worse, but as always, I was wrong. Hate, loathing, despise, none of these words conveyed the depth of negative emotion I had looking at the man.

At one point during the chaos moments earlier, he looked over at me, smiled, then winked. I mean, the fucking dipshit winked at me. It took everything I had, plus Amy was physically standing in my way to stop me from jumping over everyone and beating the crap out of him.

"So," the prosecution lawyer said, trying to start the discussion again. "Let's see if I have this right?

"You were married to a Mr Robert Other, youngest son of Mr Brad Other. But at the same time, you were having an affair with Robbert's older brother, Brad Other Jnr?"

"Yes," Georgia replied.

"You fall pregnant, and initially you let everyone believe that the baby was Roberts, but when you get caught, you change the story to say the child was his brothers. However, now you say the child is neither brothers but their fathers?" he asked incredulously.

Chaos almost erupted, but everyone held on this time. Just.

"Yes," Georgia replied again.

He shook his head, "I'm sorry, but this is... How?"

No one again said anything as everyone waited for Georgia.

"It only happened twice." Georgia looked over at me. "Robbie was out of town, and both Brad and his father had gotten me drunk. I don't recall much of it, but it was the DNA test we had to do while I was going through the divorce from Robbie that told us. Until today I have never told a soul."

"I see..." he said, trying to gather his thoughts.

We watched for a few more minutes as he got more details out of Georgia, the deception; she was humiliated but trying to keep a straight face. My father looked like he was going to strut. My brother looked more than a little like a few bricks short of a house.

Then he got out of Georgia, how my father, brother and sister, got her into swinging and she ended up pregnant with her second child, courtesy of my sister's fiance. No one in the room talked, the drama surrounding the parentage of Georgia's children was a shame she would never live down now it was public.

The judge steers us back to the matter at hand. It took a few minutes, but he got us back on track.

"How would you describe your relationship with your ex-husband, your current husband's younger brother?" the prosecution lawyer asked.

"There is no relationship," she said simply.

"Would you care to explain why?" When the defence started to object, the prosecution added addressing the Judge. "This goes towards getting us back on track and motive, Your Honour."

"Proceed," the Judge said.

Georgia thought for a moment, "Since the day that Robbie found me in bed with his brother and found out how completely both myself and his family betrayed him, Robbie has had nothing to do with us. He moved away, is now married and has children, from what I understand. Robbie has always stated no reconciliation between us in the couple of brief conversations we have had over the years since that time. Honestly, I don't blame him after what we all did to him."

The prosecution nodded.

"So you betrayed him; his family, including his brother and now we hear his father, betrayed him. You married his brother, but life wasn't great."

"That is correct," Georgia replied.

"What was your husband's attitude towards his brother?" The prosecution lawyer asked Georgia.

"Brad and his father were openly hostile towards Robbie," Georgia responded. "They would put him down any time that they had a chance. Brad always talked about what he could do to ruin Robbie's life. Brad and his father blamed Robbie for everything that went wrong after Robbie left."

"Can you explain so the court can understand how the defendant could make such a blatant privacy violation as we are discussing here today?" asked the prosecution, trying to keep us on topic.

Georgia again looked at me. Then her eyes shifted to Amy. Then she looked at Brad, who was openly glaring at her.

"I once heard Brad's father yell in a confrontation with Robbie that he was a mistake, that his only good use was as a tool within their business. That he should be glad Brad was, excuse me for this, Your Honour, but to be glad that Brad was fucking me."

Georgia blushed at the admission and her guilt. "Brad's father told me it was alright to bed Robbies brother because any kids I had with Robbie would be pathetic and weak. At one of these times, they got me drunk, and I think that is when I became pregnant with Brad snr's child."

I felt a chill run down my spine at her admission. Not only had Georgia been cheating on me with my brother, but my father as well. However, I don't think it was entirely consensual. The way Georgia talked, Georgia was used more as a tool against me than a willing sex partner.

I shook myself out of the morbid thoughts and continued listening to my ex-wife.

"During the divorce," Georgia continued. "When everything was going wrong, Brad took me to bed against my wishes, belittled Robbie, telling me how he was going to find Robbie and castrate him so he would never have kids. He was going to tie him up and torture him in revenge."

"Revenge for what?" Georgia was asked.

I gulped. This was one of my mistakes.

"Not long before the divorce finalised, we ran across Robbie on the street, and Robbie put Brad in the hospital."

She explained how I made good on my promise to kick Brad's ass as retribution for ruining my life. She then explained that she did not hold any blame on me. No charges were filed. However, Brad held a grudge and wanted revenge.

The questions continued for another half hour, painting Brad as a man repeatedly trying to browbeat his younger brother. My father also got several dishonourable mentions.

Then the prosecution got to the matter of the pictures.

"Mrs Other, does your phone have a password?"

"Yes."

"Does your husband know the password?"

"No."

"Do you have intimate photos on your phone of your time married to Mr Robert Other?"

"I did have."

"Could you explain?"

Georgia took a breath.

"When Robbie and I were married, we took several intimate photos and videos of a sexual nature using our phones. They were private and for our viewing only."

"Did you ever show these photos or videos to the defendant?"

"No."

"Again, Mrs Other, can you explain why?"

She glanced back at me, embarrassed quickly.

"As I mentioned earlier, I do not, nor have I ever loved Brad, and I dislike his father even more. However, when Robbie left me, his family convinced me to marry Brad since we were playing the game where we had a child together. Once we were married, it was no surprise that Brad began cheating on me, and the sex became average at best. We were together perhaps once a month, and Brad was on the road or sleeping elsewhere over half the week. I was lonely and used to use those photos and videos privately to feel something in bed alone at night."

It was my turn to blush.

"So, Mrs Other did you see anything wrong with keeping intimate images of a man you were no longer married to while married to his brother."

Georgia, for her turn, didn't blush this time.

"No, Robbie and I took those together. I would never show them to anyone, let alone hurt a man I still loved even more. They were, to me, a reminder of what I had lost, thrown away, really. Those pictures were my one solace in a storm where I no longer felt love."

The prosecutor looked at Georgia with something like pity.

"So if you did not give the images to the defendant, how did he get the images to send to his Brother?"

Georgia then broke down and cried. It took about five minutes and some tissues provided by the court before she could continue.

"It was a night when Brad had gone out with his father. I believe they were going to their swing group." She said, glaring at the son, then the father. "I had gotten both kids down and was feeling lonely. I pulled up a couple of the images and watched a couple of the videos helping myself to relieve some tension when Brad stormed into the bedroom.

"He saw me naked and relaxing, then saw the images on the phone. Brad and I never took any intimate pictures, and he knew I didn't like pornography with him. So when he saw the screen, he knew it was Robbie and me."

Georgia looked down at her hands and then rubbed her arm in memory.

"Brad held me down, wrestling the phone away from me. He's not as strong as Robbie, but he's still a strong man. Brad did something to copy everything to his phone. I was screaming for him to stop. But he ended up throwing me into the wall, calling me a skanky whore and stormed out with my phone. I was stunned and cried. When I came out of the room a little while later. My phone was on the bench smashed, Brad was gone."

The courtroom was deadly quiet for a few minutes until the prosecutor cleared his throat.

"Thank you, Mrs Other. I am sure that was not easy to say, besides everything else you're telling us today. I apologise for any embarrassment that may have caused you or your ex-husband, Mr Robert Other."

As Georgia got off the stand sitting back in the gallery, Brad again glared at her. My father's visage wasn't much better. Georgia didn't look my way again for the rest of the court hearing.

The prosecutor stood in front of the court. He caught my eye and gave me a very small but sympathetic nod.

"Aside from the depravity of this father and son. We have just heard testimony from the defendant's wife. He was an abusive cheater and had delusions of revenge, to which he tried multiple times over the years to hurt his younger brother. From statements provided, he somewhat succeeded in sending intimate images that were not his to his brother's wife in an attempt to cause pain to his estranged younger brother. The evidence shows how Mr Brad Other Jr used his work computer to format and send an email with the attachments using his login."

He went on for a few moments more, then asked to call my brother, Mr Brad Other Jr, the defendant, to the stand.

My brother sat down, his eyes wild, almost unfocused. Insanity looked to be nipping at his mind by the looks of things.

"Mr Other, you have heard the evidence against you today. You have heard of how you knowingly violated your wife's trust as well as the privacy of your younger brother. Do you deny this?"

Brad looked at me and gave me a crooked smile.

"Nope, I won't deny it," Brad replied arrogantly, smirking looking at me.

Everyone stopped short. No one expected an acceptance from the first question.

"Uh, Mr Other, how would you explain yourself then?" the prosecutor asked, trying to regain his balance from rocking admissions earlier and now an admission of guilt right out of the gate from the defendant himself.

My brother again glared up at me but still held that crooked smile.

"My little brother was a mistake my family should never have made. Everyone says that everything he puts his hand to turns into gold. At school, he was always top of the class; he advanced through university like nothing and picked up martial arts like it was simply breathing. He was a mistake in our family because no one could compete with him.

"I brought this up with a Dad as a teenager, and we figured out his weakness. Robbie was honest. He put one hundred per cent into everything and would always cover for any of us in the family without hesitation."

My brother started laughing at his memories.

"When we were kids, I would get Robbie to do my homework while pretending to have his back from the bullies I sent to harass him. That worked until he started his martial arts. If his bike had a flat tyre, it was me. If something was broken in his room, most of the time, I had been there earlier. At home, Dad and I would ensure that Mum always served him last as the youngest while we always got the best food.

"When he came to work for the family business, Dad put him to work running things, and the kid was so good that he really was running the place before long. My little brother was the best in sales, operations, manufacturing, and it pissed us all off. But it also allowed the rest of the family to slow down and not worry too much about things. We used to say; You knew it would get done if Robbie was doing the job."