The Art of Deception

“I want to judge the defendant by force divorce as compensation for what he did to the victim. But if he opposes the decision I demand, he will have to pay every penalty as a charge for the harm he did to my client.” After I said that, I turned to look to my right, where my client's husband was. They have been together as a couple for more than five years, but I heard from Kaye that her husband abuses her and that he comes home drunk every night, so he often pours out his anger or his stress at work to her. She wants nothing more than to divorce him, but her husband, Wendell, does not agree with her. In order to grant her request, I scared him a little bit that we will file a case against him if he does not sign the divorce paper and the punishment that he can receive is greater than he thought besides that he will also have to pay a large amount for on Kaye's hospital bills and some other things he should pay her. It seems that he felt fear from what I said, so he immediately signed a contract stating that their marriage is no longer valid and that they will go their separate ways. These are the cases that I handle most often, and I have never failed to fight for my clients. I am a public lawyer where I fight for every right of women like me. I've never experienced what they're going through now, but I understand them completely because I'm also a woman, besides that, I once went through an intense situation where I witnessed my parents divorce right in front of me. That's why from then on, I promised myself that I would be a good example for all women.

“Thank you so much, Ms. Cynthia. Because if it wasn't for you, I don't know what I would do, and I might even think about killing myself.” Kaye's eyes were filled with tears as she kept thanking me. I smiled at her, and then I came closer to her as I held both of her hands, which made her look up at me.

“Just keep in your mind that I'm always here to help you. Suicide is not a solution to escape from all your problems. Everything doesn't end there, so you have no other choice but to face it. I know it's not easy for you, but in these times, the only thing you can rely on is yourself.” I replied to her that she nodded her head and then her tears fell on my hand, but I just smiled and put my hand on her shoulder.

“Mrs. Lee!” behind me, a man's voice suddenly grabbed my attention. I immediately turned to him and I got a big smile when I saw his face while he was waving at me.

 

“Who is he? And why does he call you Mrs. Lee? Wait, you are already married? But why didn't I know that you were already married?” She asked me with a look of surprise on her face.

“Wait, why do you want to know whether I'm married or not? Why? Do you want to introduce me to someone?” I whispered to her, which made her smile and she just nodded her head. “There's no need because I only need one man in my life.” I added as I turned to look at the whereabouts of the man who called me earlier, my husband. Kaye seemed surprised to learn that handsome man was my husband. Her eyes widened in shock at the same time she covered her mouth as she was staring at me. I won't wonder why she reacted like that, maybe because she couldn't believe that the twenty-nine-year-old guy who was often mistaken for a model and college student was actually my husband. We are more than fourteen years apart from each other but as others say, age doesn't matter, that's why we don't care, no matter what other people say and think about the two of us. The only important thing is that we love each other and no one can stop our love, no one. I just patted Kaye once on the shoulder as I left her and went to where Gael was, my husband. While I was walking closer to him, he spread his two arms wide, so I ran towards him, and then I hugged him tightly.

“You did well.” He whispered to me at the same time I let out a wide breath. This is my favorite moment of all, when he would go to my workplace to hug me and whisper words that relieve my tiredness and stress. “I bet you're hungry now, where do you want to eat?” he added as he fixed my hair.

“I'm not starving right now, I just want to rest at home.” I replied to him at the same time he took the laptop bag I was holding.

“Are you sure you're not hungry?” he assured, and I nodded my head. He drew a sweet smile on his lips at the same time he held my right hand, and then we walked to leave that place, but we only took three steps when we stopped immediately when Kaye called me, and then she blocked in front of us two.

“Kaye? Is there anything else you want to tell me?” I asked her, but she didn't respond to me right away, but it was like she was nervous and that she was avoiding someone. I slowly turned behind me where her attention was focused, and I noticed that her ex-husband was there while staring at her intently. Furthermore, I think she called me because she wanted to ask me for help, and so I could get her away from her obsessed husband, but she couldn't tell me because she was too scared at the moment. That's why I came closer to her and held one of her hands, causing her attention to shift to me.

“Come with us, and we'll drop you off at your address.” I offered her, but she took a little longer to answer, and I noticed that her lower lips were trembling in fear, so she just nodded her head. I smiled to reduce the nervousness she was feeling as I held her hand tightly. We headed to the parking lot, and she got into our car, but before I got in, her ex-husband Wendell suddenly caught my attention as if he wanted to tell me something, so I approached him for a while.

“Where are you going?” Gael was curious about me when he noticed that I hadn't entered the car yet.

“Hon, I just want to talk to him for a moment.” After I told him that, I hurriedly went to Wendell's direction, where he was looking at me with a frown.

“Are you happy now? Are you happy because you succeeded in separating the two of us?” he said in a lower voice. I grinned and put my hands in my pants pockets.

“I just want to tell you not to try any foolish with her, you know what I mean, don't you? If you ignore my words, next time you will be behind bars.” I responded boldly to him, which made him laugh, so I raised one eyebrow with a trace of astonishment on my face.

“If you think you've succeeded in protecting her, then I want to clarify it for you that you don't fully know the person you choose to side with. You don't fully know her true character, and someone like her should not be allowed to get away inside the cage.” When I heard what he said, I shook my head and I couldn't understand what he wanted to convey to me because it seemed like every word he was saying was very mysterious. However, as Kaye's lawyer, I will not allow her to get hurt just because of the lies he tells me. That's why, instead of answering him, I just turned my back on him so that the conversation between the two of us could end. But I was only one step away when I was immediately stopped by the last word he said to me.

“Do you think she is really telling the truth? Do you think I can hurt the person who is most important in my life? Is it only a woman who is entitled to cry and be a victim in a story that only she knows? You don't know what kind of monster you let loose. May you not regret it in the end.” The last words he said to me before he turned his back on me and left. I wanted to turn to him and talk to him again to clarify what he said to me, but I tried to ignore him, and then I just walked away from him without looking back. I was walking to the parking lot, but I immediately stopped when I glanced at my husband's car where I noticed that he was talking to Kaye, and they were both laughing. At that moment, I suddenly felt nervous in my chest and Wendell's voice whispered in my ear where the things he told me about her came back to me. “It can't be true.” I whispered to myself as I looked at the two of them and clenched my fist while trembling.