Chapter 111 - Cheers to Comeuppance
Chapter 56 pt. 2
“What is this!?” Jeffrey hollered, unable to believe what he saw with his own eyes.
“This, Hollands, is your birth certificate. Your real one.”
“What?”
“This, document B, is your fake one.” Hunter then put the two documents side by side on the projector. “A perfect forgery.” Jeffrey’s eyes darted back and forth between the documents, noticing their subtle difference in quality and legality. But what made his face pale were the names of the birth mothers. Why was Piper’s name on the real one and his mother’s on the fake one?
“What … What is this?”
“This, right here, shows and proves that Ms. Piper Hollands has been lying about her identity. She is not a distant relative of the Hollands family. She is actually a mistress that Jack Hollands impregnated when she was still a minor.” There were gasps of horror and disgust within the gallery. Jack’s face paled in horror as his nearly 30-year-old secret was brought to light and on national television to boot. “Additionally, I would like to enter into the evidence file C. Hunter said as he gave a folder to Judge Trainor. And then also changed the picture on the screen. It was the recent pictures of Jack and Piper together that Royce had taken.
“WHAT IS THIS!?! YOU’RE STILL SLEEPING WITH HER!?” Ruth Hollands bellowed in a fury. She turned to her husband and slapped him squarely across the face. It was so loud that it brought on a palpable silence in the room. Joey stared at his family in shock. Completely baffled at the turn of events.
“Objection! What does this have to do with my divorce from Annika!?” Jeffrey exclaimed in frustration.
“It brings into question his upbringing, Your Honor,” Hunter answered right away. “Jeffrey Hollands is the product of an affair. And as the saying goes, the apple doesn’t fall from the tree.” Just as he said this, Toby returned with a file in his hands. He gave it to Leon, who read it and then showed it to Matthaeus. Once Matthaeus read was it entailed, his eyes brightened.
“Your Honor, permission to approach the bench?” Matthaeus asked. Judge Trainor nodded his head. Matthaeus showed him what Toby had brought in. Though Judge Trainor knew that the original jury foreman had been bribed, he didn’t know who was behind it. But now, he did. He nodded once at Matthaeus, who then gave the document to Hunter. Hunter took it in confusion but then smiled when he read it over.
“Ladies and gentlemen of the court, we now have irrefutable evidence that Piper Hollands, or I should say, Piper Masters, is behind the bribery of the Jury Foreman who had been replaced.” More sharp inhalations of breath could be heard, and all the colors had drained from Piper’s face. This information gobsmacked Jeffrey. “Ms. Masters, the evidence is clear; you bribed the jury foreman. Why?”
“I didn’t … I didn’t …”
“Need I remind you that perjury is a felony!?”
“I … I …”
“Ms. Masters!” Hunter shouted, making her flinch.
“I did it for my son!” she shouted. The courtroom was now silent again. “I did it for my son. I bribed the foreman to vote against Annika and in favor of Jeffrey.”
“Why would you do that?!” Jeffrey screamed.
“Because you’re too stupid to do anything right for yourself! You had the best life possible, but you had to go and ruin it for a piece of ass! You could have had billions to your name if you had stayed faithful! But no! You had to go and stick your dick where it didn’t belong! Inside of a whore!”
“You’re one to talk, you homewrecking slut!” Ruth shouted.
“ORDER!” Judge Trainor slammed his gavel.
“I WANT A DIVORCE JACK HOLLANDS!” Ruth cried out and ran away.
“Ruth! Wait!” Jack got up to chase his wife but was suddenly on the ground holding his face. He looked up and saw his youngest son, Joey, looking at him furiously with his fists clenched by his side. “Son.”
“Fuck you, Dad,” Joey spat and took off after his mother. He stopped at the double doors and looked back at Piper and Jeffrey with so much hatred and malice before leaving. Jack stayed on the ground, defeated. His eyes swept over the crowd, who were giving him looks of disgust and contempt. That’s when he saw all of the cameras on him. His image had been officially ruined. He darted his gaze to Annika and her family, who were all snickering at his expense. The men were smirking at his misfortunes.