Chapter 25

LEVI I wasn’t sure how to have this conversation, but I needed to tell her the truth. She looked like her entire world had just crumbled all around her… how could I add to her pain.

But if I said nothing…

“I need to tell you something,” I began.

When she looked up at me, her face was full of trust, of hope, and I wanted to stop speaking. I didn't want to say it, but I had to.

“Savannah Van Allen was my mother’s friend, and she was also my ex-wife’s mother.”

There it was, the trust disappeared right in front of my eyes, and all I could see instead was rage.

“Thea…” I reached for her, but she smacked my hand away and stood up.

“Why… why didn’t you say anything? I told you months ago! Why didn't you say anything?”

“I wasn’t sure what to say—”

“How about ‘Thea for years I thought your father murdered my wife’s mother’!” she screamed at me. “Why am I using past tense? You probably never believed in me from the beginning.”

“That’s not true!”

“Why else wouldn’t you speak up? Why else would you never bring it up, when I talked about him all the time? You never really believed that I could get him out. He was just going to die in prison, and I never would have needed to know.”

“I didn’t tell you because it doesn’t matter to me! I love you, I want you to stay, and I didn’t want you to use this as an excuse to run away.”

“You loved me and didn’t want me to run? Or is it that you weren’t sure what to say? Which is the truth? Or do you just say pretty things without thinking about what they actually mean?!”

“I’m telling you because I will help you. I want to help you.”

“Don’t bother. Anyone who hides the truth from me in order to keep me at their side isn’t someone I want to be with.”

She moved to the door but I grabbed on to her.

“Thea—”

“Let go of me!” she screamed, and wriggled out of my grasp.

I couldn’t.

“Don’t do this, please. I was wrong not to tell you, I know that. But we aren’t running away from each other anyone—”

“There is no we. Getting involved with you was a bad idea, I knew it then and I should have trusted myself. I can’t trust you, so let go of me Levi, or I will scream until someone calls the police.”

She ripped her arm from my grip, not even bothering to grab her coat before slamming the door on her way out. A moment later Bellamy’s screams echoed through the house, mirroring my own internal grief and frustrations.

“I hate you,” Tristan said, dressed in sweatpants and Red Sox hoodie.

I ignored him and handed Bellamy back to Bethan.

“Where’s Thea?” she asked, looking around.

“She left me.”

Her eyes widened as she rubbed Bellamy’s back. “I’ll put her down in the guest room.”

Nodding, I let her go, before leading Tristan into my living room, stepping over all of the boxes.

“What’s all this?” he said, with a lot less edge to his voice.

“Case files on State of Connecticut vs. Ben Walton on the kidnapping, rape and murder of Savannah Van Allen,” I said as I sat back down on the couch and rubbed my eyes.

It was already seven in the morning, and I didn’t see myself sleeping anytime soon.

“You’re going to need to connect the dots for me here Levi.”

“It’s one fucked up story,” I laughed bitterly. “According to the state of Connecticut, my ex-wife’s mother was murdered by my now ex-girlfriend’s father.”

“Holy shit,” Bethan gasped, already back downstairs.

I lifted my empty glass up and tipped it in her direction before finally pouring myself a shot of brandy.

“How many of those have you had?”

“Don’t worry,” I drank again, “this is my first one. I’ve been waiting for you guys to come back, and now that you’re here, I think I’m just going to go ahead and get drunk… because I’m fucked.”

“You’re trying to get him out?” Tristan asked, looking at my notes. “Levi, have you lost your damned mind?”

“He didn’t do it,” I replied, as I finished off my glass and poured another one.

“Levi, I understand you like her—” Bethan began.

“Love. I love her. We’re telling all truths today,” I cut her off.

She sighed, starting again. “Okay. I get that you love her. But she’s his daughter. Of course she thinks her father is innocent, but that doesn’t make it so.”

“That was the very first thing I thought until I started to find out more about Margaret The Shark Cunning. Spoiler Alert; she’s the devil, and believe me, if I could criminally prosecute her, I would a thousand times over.”

“Levi, tell me this isn't just because you love her, and I will back you up one hundred percent. You know I will. So tell me, what do you know that we don’t?”

“Ben Walton and Savannah Van Allen were having an affair. When Margaret found out, she, from what I can gather, tampered with evidence and left him out to hang. She confessed to this eight months ago before dying of stage four-lung cancer. That’s why Thea’s in law school.”

They didn’t say anything for a moment. Bethan slowly sank onto the couch.

“Is there any proof of this?” Tristan asked, as he reached for my notes.

“Only God knows at this point. Thea has been combing over these files for months. I haven’t touched them, because I knew the minute I did, I would have to tell her.”

“So you told her?” Bethan questioned.

“Yes, and she walked out.”

“And you’re still looking into this?” she whispered. “This is Pandora’s Box, Levi. The moment you open it, bad shit is going to coming flying out at you from every direction. Mom… Oh my God, Mom will just lose it. Not to mention Odile.”

As she sat there staring at me, Tristan spoke up, “But if the man is really innocent, I can’t imagine not doing anything just because we will piss a few people off. They should know the truth, and the right people should be jailed for their crimes. That’s the point of the justice system.” Tristan looked to me. “I’ve spent my career with you, helping people stay out of prison. Sometimes rightfully so and other times not. I’ll support you on this, but there’s a great chance we will lose, and lose badly.”

“I’m prepared for it.”

“You might not get her back either,” he added.

That I wasn’t as prepared for.

“I’ll deal with that.”

“Can I just play devil’s advocate for one second?” Bethan frowned looking at us both. I just nodded for her to go on. “Aren’t you being a little too trusting? Levi, babe, these are your careers, careers you’ve both spent years, and hundreds of thousands of dollars crafting. I’ve been here from the beginning. I’ve seen the shit you’ve both put yourselves through just to get this far.

“I like Thea, she seems like a really sweet girl, but do any of us really know her? For all we know she could have been planning this for months. She comes into my bar, and just happens to meet and go home with the best criminal attorney in the country? Then, she somehow turns out to be your student, and from what Tristan’s told me, she’s not afraid of playing the blackmail card. And on top of all this, she drops this bomb and tells you about her father? I know this sucks to hear, I know you really do love her, but what if she’s using you? I mean consider the timing of all this... what if—”

“Stop,” I whispered, not wanting to hear anymore.

“Levi—”

“No. She isn’t that person.”

I knew her.

Tristan frowned. “She did blackmail me once just to get what she wanted—”

“No!” I snapped at them both, and they just looked at each other. “Fine, let’s say what you’re saying is true. Let’s say that for months she’s been jerking me around, and she’s that good of an actress that I fell for it. Nothing changes for me. Even if she admitted it right now, I would be hurt, and so fucking pissed off, but I would still be right here looking through all these files. I would still want to help her even if she betrayed me like that. Thank you for worrying about me Beth, but I’ve made up my mind.”

Tristan sighed, got up, and headed to the kitchen. Before long, he was back with two more glasses and he poured us all a drink.

“Where you go, I go. And when this is done, I am taking the longest fucking vacation of my life,” he said, as he handed me my glass.

“Thank you.”

THEA

I was half frozen by the time I got to Atticus’ place. I couldn’t feel my toes, and my fingers felt like they could be snapped off one by one. When he saw me, he didn’t crack any jokes and he didn’t say anything stupid. Instead, he stepped aside, and held the door open, allowing me to enter his tiny, one bedroom apartment, and crawl up onto his couch.

He placed a thick blanket over me, and left a cup of hot chocolate on the coffee table, for whenever I was ready to drink. He sat down in front of the couch, watching the news in silence.

“That’s my dad,” I whispered, and he looked between me and the television, at the Asian man speaking.

If I could, I would have laughed.

“No. Down at the bottom of the feed, Ben Walton, the murderer, who tried to kill himself. That’s him. That’s my dad.”

He understood me now. “My dad was a corn farmer before he became a Governor.”

“Thank you,” I said, as I wiped my eyes.

He wasn’t making fun of me, he was simply trying to tell me he that didn’t care.

“They say he killed Levi’s ex-wife’s mother.”

From there it all just spilled out of me… everything from when I was a child, to my step father’s alleged crimes, to that last moment with Levi, the moment where it felt like he had stabbed me through the heart with a smile.

LEVI It was my third time walking past the office. She should have been in there, but she wasn’t. I had seen all of my students with the exception of her… Three days; that was the last time I had seen her. Neither she nor her sister had answered any of my calls, and at this point, I didn’t even know if she was okay.

“You can stop walking by, she isn’t coming in today,” Atticus said to me, with his tie over his shoulder as he changed the light bulb.

“So you’ve spoken to her?”

“Kind of hard not to, what with her crashing at my place and all… I’m already out of cereal,” he replied, stepping down from the ladder.

I felt my hand curl into a fist just seeing the smug look on his face and I had to force myself to relax.

He was a student. He needed to learn to not be involved in my personal life.

“What is the percentage of cases that are plea bargained and settled outside of court?” I quizzed him as calmly as possible.

He straightened up quickly; “Less than five percent.”

“And this from Levi Black and Associates?”

“Three—No. Three and a half times as many.”

“Why?”

He paused trying to think.

Too slow.

“Because a great lawyer isn’t afraid of court. Courts are your arena. This was a simple question, Mr. Logan, and not one you will be likely to come across again, especially on your final. You’re slipping.”

He nodded, and I could see him kicking himself.

Much better.

I only managed to get three feet away before I turned back. I just had to know, I had to ask. “How is she?”

“She is Thea,” he replied, “and just so you know, I’m gay. She’s the reason that I can tell you that… that I can tell anyone that now. So you don’t have to worry about me being around her.”

He didn’t linger, he just moved on with his work.

“When you’re done, Mr. Logan, she might need a friend to check up on her once she sees the news,” I said, kicking myself as I walked away.

This is what she’d meant when she said that it was impossible for them to physically be together… his orientation…

“Don’t even say it, Betty,” I told the older woman who sat behind her desk. She pretended to zip her lips, but her eyes were talking… laughing actually.

In my office, I sat at my desk checking my watch.

“You have an hour until the story breaks,” Tristan said, as he came in.

“I’m going to meet my mother and let her know in person before then. You coming?”

“To that slaughter? No thank you, I have over a thousand pages of case notes to look through. When will we start assigning people?”

“Tristan, they will try to bury us in paper work and red tape. Believe me when I say we are going to need every last person on this. Once this news breaks, we will feel a backlash like we’ve never felt before. You can still back out.”

“O Captain! My Captain!” was his only reply.

“Wish me luck?”

“From the man who believes you make your own luck?”

Too bad I didn’t feel like that man anymore.

THEA

“Ladies and gentlemen good evening, tonight we have breaking news out of Boston Massachusetts, where top criminal attorney, Levi Black, has now taken on the case of convicted murderer, Ben Walton.

“Seventeen years ago, Ben Walton was charged with the kidnapping, rape and murder of Boston socialite Savannah Van Allen… A charge that Mr. Black now wishes to overturn. In a statement to KYLM, Mr. Black says, ‘there is no doubt my mind that Ben Walton is an innocent man who did not receive a fair and just trial, as is his constitutional right. This is due to not only the blatant incompetence of the police, who did not follow basic protocol regarding the evidence, and but also his own legal representative. We are calling for a new trial and anyone who wants the truth and see due process done right should not be against this.’”

My phone rang nonstop, but I just couldn’t believe my ears as I listened to the radio. He was still going through with this?

“Hello?” I finally picked up the phone.

“Put the cereal down. Get out of your sweatpants, and get to the office now, this place is about to become a battlefield and it’s time for you to serve. This is why you wanted to become a lawyer, right? This is your big moment, so don’t be selfish and let your emotions get in the way of helping your dad. That is what you want, right?” Atticus yelled into the phone over the ruckus in the background.

“I’m not at your place. I needed to make a stop. I’ll be there by in a few hours—”

“Thea, where in the hell could you be going that’s more important than this?”

“I’m going to visit my father,” I said, hanging up on him just as the police officer and his dog came up to my car window.

I gave him my pass, and he waved me through.

I could feel my heart slamming against my chest as I parked and got out. Over the last couple of months, I had written him over two dozen letters and had never heard anything back. I figured that he didn’t want to see me… and I was too scared to go see him.

I had a vague image of the man that was once my father in my head, and I didn’t want that image of him to be gone as well. Would he still smell like aftershave? Would he still eat purple skittles with me? It was dumb, and I knew I was holding on to false hope, but it was all I had left. I was being selfish though, not seeing him all these years because I didn’t want to lose my happy memories.

“Who are you here to see ma’am?” the guard at the desk asked me.

“Ben Walton. I called.”

“Some ID please?”

Handing him my driver’s license, he scrolled down a white clipboard his shaking his head at me.

“I’ve got a Thea Walton on the list. No Cunning. The names have to match. He should have filled out a new visitors sheet for you, this one hasn’t been updated in years.”

Obviously he never expected me to come either.

“I have an old ID,” I said as I opened my wallet and took out the old college ID; the school had messed up and put my old name on it. I had gotten a new one, but couldn’t bring myself to throw it out. He took it held up to my face and then looked at my license.

“Step over there, we need to search you,” he said, as he handed them back to me.

“Thank you,” I replied, as I walked to where he pointed.

“Do you mind if I check for any foreign objects in your hair and on your person?” a woman asked when I stepped up.

She asked, but I don’t think it was a question.

Nodding, I turned around. She patted a little hard but I didn’t say anything. It felt like a never-ending line of checkpoints before I was finally taken to the visiting room. On TV, I had always seen the glass with the telephones on both sides, but in real life, it looked more like a cage.

The guard signaled for me to sit, and when I did, the door on the opposite side opened. I held my breath as he walked in, his hands, feet and waist chained. He was just as tall as I remembered, with skin as dark as mine, and grey hair. His faced looked hard, like he had taken so many hits to the face that it was almost stone. I noticed the large white bandage wrapped around his neck, and the method of his suicide attempt became apparent. I held my breath, fighting against the surge of emotions that had welled up within me. He sat down, but they didn’t unchain him.

“Who are you?” he asked as soon as he picked up the receiver.

His voice was deep and scratchy and his eyes looked me over emotionlessly.

Wiping a tear from my eye, I tried not to let it bother me. “It’s me, Dad. Thea Bear? Remember?”

His eyes widened slightly, but he didn’t speak.

“You’ve been getting my letters right? Selene’s too?”

Again silence.

“You haven’t written back so…”

“You shouldn’t have come here,” he said to me, as he hung up the phone.

I slammed my hand against the glass, causing the guards to come forward from their place at the doors.

“Sorry,” I said to them quickly, and turned back to him. I motioned for him to pick up the phone again.

He cracked his jaw, as he once more picked up the receiver. “What do you want?”

“I came to see you, it took me two hours to get here—”

“I didn’t ask you to.”

“Well, you should have!” I snapped at him. “You should have asked us to come. You should have written us back. And you sure as hell shouldn’t have done that to yourself. We are family—”

“We are not family. You do not know me.”

“I know you didn’t do it, and I know you are my father. I don’t need to know anything else. I don’t care about anything else. You’re getting out of here.”

He shook his head. “How much is this new lawyer costing you? I met him. He looked like something I can’t afford. You’re all wasting your time and money… I’m tellin’ you they do not care. I’ve acce—”

“If you say ‘accepted’, I swear to God, I’ll lose it. This isn’t something you accept, and don’t you dare say that to anyone here. Levi is different. This is different. If the money bothers you, then the moment you get out, we’ll sue the state and then you can pay it all back. But right now I need you to tell me you didn’t do it.”

He leaned in. “So you don’t believe me after all.”

“I do believe you. I just need to know if there’s any more fight in you. I’m here, I will walk the line, but I need to know that you’re walking it with me, Dad.”

He put his hand up against the glass as he looked at me. “I was prepared to die knowing in my soul that I didn’t do anything wrong. That I would leave this world an innocent man. The appeals that failed didn’t matter no more. Then you and you sister had to go and complicate everything with your letters. It was easier when you didn’t speak to me.”

“Just because something is easier, doesn’t mean it’s better. Now is there anything you can tell me that can help us? Please Dad, I need you to just try.”

LEVI “Get out!” she screamed, as tears ran down her face, “I have no idea what possessed you to do this, but until it’s over, stay away from me.”

“Mom, I know you’re angry, but if this man—”

“If? If? You are putting this entire family, not to mention the Van Allen family, through this all over again, and you have the nerve to say ‘if’?”

“Fine. He didn’t do this, and he does not deserve to be behind bars. The person who killed Savannah does, but not him. How do you not see that? Especially with the way his case was handled!” I yelled back at her.

“Get him out of here,” she yelled at my father. “Get him out or I will say something a mother shouldn’t. Get him away from me.”

“Don’t bother, I’ll see myself out. Whether you like it or not, I am going through with this case,” I called out to her, but she wouldn’t look at me.

She held her hands to her face and cried, and in that moment, I hated myself for putting her though this again.

Halfway out the door, my father called to me, “Levi, what are you doing?”

“Getting a man, my client, out of prison,” I answered him.

“You’ve worked so hard all your life. I have seen you build up a career for yourself, and now you’re about to blow it all up? No one will touch you after this. I just don’t understand.”

“An innocent man is in jail… if you don’t understand that, I really don’t have time to explain it to you,” I said, already walking to my car.