Avoiding Temptation (Avoiding #3)(130)

Then, Jack turned to the back, and they both stared slack-jawed at a picture that, while it was grainy and hard to see, was unmistakably them. Neither would ever forget that night. Lexi’s back was pressed firmly against a wall, her red dress hiked up over her hips with her legs wrapped around his waist. There was no mistaking what was going on.

She was so shocked by the sheer volume of pictures and the story being told that Lexi couldn’t even get her mind working to tell Richard how much this was complete and utter bullshit. Jack had to get these thrown out. It wasn’t true, but goddamn it, from this storyline, it looked believable to even her. Lexi could account for every moment when these pictures had been captured. None of them were doctored, but also none of them were of her and Jack cheating…except for the last one.

“No,” Lexi said, shaking her head. “Let’s find a room to talk this out. It’s a false trail. She’s planted a false trail. She’s f**king falsifying evidence. Oh, I’ll skin her alive!”

“That’s a great idea,” Richard said, gesturing for them to walk down a hallway.

Lexi could hear the lilt in Bekah’s laughter as they walked away. It took every ounce of Lexi’s strength not to turn around and claw the Bitch’s face off.

They stepped into an open room, and Richard closed the door.

“Are either of you going to explain this to me, so we can have a starting point on how to address it?”

“Have the judge throw it out! It’s not permissible.”

Richard shook his head. “We need a plan of attack. The judge has already agreed to keep it. He took one look at it and said it was too important not to include.”

“What was their reasoning for not having it earlier?” she cried.

“The private investigator was waiting for video footage that was held up,” Richard said, shaking his head. “Bullshit. That’s how I know it’s all wrong. So, one of you needs to start explaining. We don’t have time.”

Richard yanked out a chair and took a seat. After retrieving his legal pad and a pen, they launched into the story. They explained every single picture in complete detail. Neither of them wavered in their stories because it was the truth. For once, they had absolutely nothing to hide.

“And the last one?” Richard asked, raising his eyebrow.

Lexi looked at Jack, and he sighed and nodded.

“It was the night before I proposed to Bekah,” Jack said.

Richard dropped his pen. “You’re really not helping me.”

“It’s the truth though. Bekah knew about it before we got married.”

Lexi chimed in. “I was there. I told her about it. I can name almost ten people who were witness to that.”

“It’s too late for witnesses, but this will have to do. Is there anything else either of you can think of that would change the tides? They’ll work this storyline pretty hard. I can already tell.”

Jack and Lexi glanced at each other, trying to decide if there was anything else, but there wasn’t.

“All right. This is what we’re going to do…”

This entire thing hinged on whether or not they could prove that Jack hadn’t cheated. If he hadn’t signed that damn prenup with Bekah—saying that if either of them cheated, the one at fault had to pay the other a sizable, crippling amount of money and give up all of the assets—then none of this would even matter. It would be a normal fifty-fifty split, like every other divorce.

Forty-five minutes later, when they were called into the courtroom, they had a game plan for how they were going to approach the new evidence. Lexi took a deep breath, and Jack grabbed her hand again.

He squeezed it lightly and smiled down at her. “Don’t worry. We’ll get through this. Lying never seemed to work. Maybe telling the truth will do us some good,” he said with a wink.

Lexi smiled weakly up at him. She wanted to have his optimism in that moment, but this had gone from good to bad to worse in a matter of minutes. She didn’t want Bekah to demoralize Jack…to tear him down until there was nothing left. Lexi didn’t want to think Bekah was capable of it, but Lexi didn’t know. She just didn’t know.

They left the room behind and walked down to the entrance of the courtroom. Bekah smugly walked in before them. The way she looked at them made it seem like she had already won.

Lexi didn’t know what it was about that look, but it sparked a light bulb in her mind. She pulled up short, yanking on Jack’s arm, as he tried to continue walking forward. Lexi was shaking her head, realizing what she had been missing.

“Lex, come on,” Jack said, urging her forward. “It’ll be over soon.”

“I have to get something. I just remembered…” She trailed off.

“What?” Jack asked, his eyes trained on her.

She was sure he could feel Richard staring daggers at them.

“I know what can help. I’ll be back,” she said, turning to leave.

“What? Lexi,” Jack called.

She stopped and turned back around.

“What is it? What should I tell Richard?”

Lexi smiled and whispered into Jack’s ear.

Jack laughed and nodded. “All right.”

“Tell him to be ready,” she said before turning and jogging out of the courthouse.