When the court date arrives I am a nervous wreck, and haven’t slept all night. My parents are here with Sara, they came down for the day. So are Alex, Rea and Justin. We arrived an hour ago at the most, and I still haven’t laid eyes on Josh and I seriously wonder if he even bothered remembering.
But as we all know, Josh has a knack of surprising everyone with his actions and he does turn up. In a blue suit and with his lawyer in tow. He walks into the room and turns on every charm he can muster, and smiles at every woman in the room. He reaches to where we are all sitting and picks up his daughter, who squeals in delight He seems to forget that I am there.
“Hello sweetie,” Josh says and kisses his daughter’s forehead. “Did you miss daddy?” I look at Sara, whose eyes are full of joy at the sight of Josh and his ego.
“Yes!” Sara calls and Josh gives everyone in the room a big, fat smirk.
“Don’t worry honey after today you won’t miss daddy anymore okay?” Josh asks and out of the corner of my eye I see Alex frown, this is not good.
“Okay daddy!” Sara says excitedly as Josh puts her down and she climbs onto my mother’s lap.
“You don’t know you’ll win Josh,” I say as he walks away from us, “So maybe for now you and your ego should watch what they say.” But Josh as always, just ignores me and walks over to the bench where he and his lawyer will be stationed. As he sits down he casts a look over my way, and I know he has something up his sleeve, something I can’t quite place.
As the day drags on, Josh has managed to bring up the most ridiculous people to testify for him. Making him look like the best father on the face of this earth. He even got those thee friends of his, the ones he’s always had, to testify event though they’ve never even glimpsed at my daughter. He even got some people who know me to tell the world how wonderful he’s been, sticking by Sara and my side and shit.
By the time it comes for my lawyer to have his witnesses on the stand, everyone can see how much shit Josh has slapped on his face. They do not believe him, and when we get Rea, Justin and most of all Alex up there to testify, they all bring up the ten thousand dollar check that bounced, as well as Josh’s ability to disappear with my child for three hours.
This makes Josh sink into his chair deeper and deeper, but by the end of all the testimonies he is sitting back up straight, and smiling at the judge. I begin to wonder what he is so happy about, even though he’s just made himself be pulled through mud.
“Don’t look so scared,” Alex whispers in my ear as the lawyers deliberate. “He hasn’t got a case you know it. Not even all the testimonies to his name can help him now.”
“I know,” I whisper back with a very shaky voice, “But I can’t help it.” Alex nods and puts a hand on mine.
“Why? Lila, Josh is nowhere as near a good a parent as you are and you know it,” Alex whispers and looks across at Josh, “I don’t know why he’s smiling though.”
“Because he has something up his sleeve,” I say under my breath.
“Oh God,” Alex mutters, “I wonder what that could be.” I see Alex roll his eyes and I sigh, this is going to be a long day.
I look up at the judge; actually we all do as we hear him reading out his verdict. He babbles on about good parenting, and how parents should always be there for their children. I smile, because I know this is something against Josh, everyone knows it. The judge talks about how important family is, and how we need to be there for each other.
Alex is grinning from ear to ear, and I’m sure he can’t wait to gloat to Josh about this. I manage to sneak a look at Josh, and he is smiling, with all the energy he can muster. Looking so proud of himself, as if he’s done something fabulous. But I try and cut that out of my head as I focus my attention on the judge.
“As you are all aware, in this case it is difficult for me to make a solid decision as to who should have custody of the child in question,” the judge continued and I looked at him with an open mouth. Was he serious? “However, I have come to a decision as who should be the primary care giver to the child Sara Rana Hemi.”
Then there is a long pause, a very long one, and I swear it is the longest times of my life. I can feel the blood pound in my head, and my heart almost stopping with anticipation.
“Therefore, the responsibility of primary caregiver to the child in question goes to,” the judge begins and I swear everyone is on the edge of their seats. “Josh Chasez.”
My heart stops beating, right then and there. I feel like I can’t breathe as I hear the verdict, and wonder, through all the muck going on in my head, how this can happen. All the evidence was there, but even though it was there it seemed not to be enough. And through all my tears, that have formed now, I can hear my mother and father screaming that they’ve made a mistake; I can hear Alex yelling obscenities at Josh. But all that doesn’t matter, because in the back of it all the only thing I can hear is my daughter screaming for her mother and father.
I look up for a minute just to see if my daughter is okay, and all I see is her being picked up by her father. Josh walks over to Sara and scoops her into his arms, and as he is about to walk out of the court room with my daughter he manages to look at me, with his eyes full of satisfaction, as if he’s gained something over me.
“Say goodbye to mommy Sara,” he says and I am crying as I can hear the gloating in his voice.
“Bye mommy,” Sara says, and I can swear at that moment I never thought I’d hear those words come from her mouth.
“Josh, you can’t do this,” I manage to whisper and Josh gives me a throaty laugh.
“Yeah well I just did Lila,” Josh replies, “Like I’ve always told you, it’s good to be me. We’ll see you soon.” And without even letting me hold my own daughter for even a minute, he turns around and walks out of the court room.
As the big oak doors slam shut, and Josh walks away from me with my life, I know that was the last time I will ever see my daughter, for a very long time.
