Hell Within -- Chapter Seven: The Birthright -- scenes 1-3

-Chapter Seven: The Birthright-

-1-

Jason Barnes couldn’t believe his eyes as he stepped off the courthouse elevator onto the second floor. Paul Ambrose sat beside her on the bench across from the elevator, and when he saw Jason he stood.

"Mandy?" Jason said.

She smiled.

"You look totally different."

She nodded and looked at Paul. "Dr. Ambrose shamed me into making a few changes."

But it wasn’t just a few changes. Her hair was auburn now, and she wore makeup.

"I like that hair color," Jason said.

"It’s my natural color."

Jason looked at Paul and shook his head. "You really are amazing."

Paul shook his head. "Don’t give me the credit. She’s the one who brought her grades up from Cs and Ds to Bs."

Jason looked at Mandy and shook his head with disbelief. She didn’t look like a Goth chick anymore. She’d lost the black band tee shirt for a purple silk button-up, and instead of the saggy jeans, she wore a knee-length suede skirt.

Paul cleared his throat as if to get Jason’s attention.
Jason looked at him.

"So how’s this going to work?" Paul said.

Jason nodded as if he’d just remembered where he was. "We have roll call in Courtroom 3 in a half an hour, but before that Damon wants to meet with us in conference room 205. He says that your mother wants to offer some kind of deal."

Paul gave him an inquisitive look.

Jason shrugged. "Let’s go find out, shall we?"

-2-

Conference room 205 was not at all what Mandy expected. Short and narrow rectangular windows of black steel frames lined the back wall bathing the white sheetrock in morning sunlight. The floor consisted of cheap gray tiles of the variety one might find in a school, and black rubber shoe molding connected the walls with the floor.

It was the same, shoddy construction one might find in a school.

And she was very self-conscious as she stepped in. Her mother, true to form, smirked at her new, clean-cut look. Mandy made sure not to look directly at her.

Paul squeezed her hand, and led her over to the table where they took their seats across from her mother and her mother’s attorney with Jason sitting between her and Dr. Ambrose.

Jason sat his leather briefcase flat on the table before him and rested his hands on it.

"You said you wanted to discuss a deal?" He said, looking across the table at her mother’s attorney.

Her mother’s attorney cleared his throat and leaned toward Jason.

"We don’t want to fight. We’re prepared to go before the judge today, and allow your emancipation."

Jason frowned and eyed Paul.

"What’s the catch?"

The attorney, a man in his early forties with a ruddy complexion -- the kind that made him look sleazy -- smiled and nodded at Mandy. And something about the way his eyes searched her made her feel dirty.

"Terra will pay no support, she will continue to claim Mandy as a dependant on her taxes until Mandy is eighteen, and Mandy is not to show up at her residence."

Jason looked at Mandy, and she shrugged.

Jason gave Terra a skeptical look and then nodded.

Terra’s attorney pressed his lips together and looked at Terra.
"There’s one more thing," he said. "That’s why I asked Mr. Ambrose to join us."

Paul grimaced.

"It’s Doctor Ambrose."

The attorney didn’t even seem to notice Paul’s interjection.

"In order for us to not fight you, you will both drop all charges against David Lester."

"Absolutely not," Paul said.

Mandy leaned forward and looked at him. "Why not? It’ll get him and her out of my life!"

Paul didn’t seem to notice that Mandy had spoken. He was looking now at Terra, and he had that shrewd expression on his face that he sometimes had just before tearing into Mandy’s soul and pulling all the ugly out for her to see.

Mandy deflated.

"You don’t know anything about him, Mister Ambrose," Terra said.

"You have no love for David; you’re afraid of him. They only reason we’re in here is that your need for David’s drugs far outweighs your sadistic desire to make your daughter pay."

Terra scowled at him. "You don’t know anything about me."

Paul grinned like a hunter moving in for the kill. "Well, in that case, I should advise you that you should examine that hatred you have for your daughter very carefully before you act upon it again. Those emotions do not belong to her."

Terra looked straight into Mandy’s face for the first time.
"You better put a leash back on your pet; he’s about to bite the wrong girl."

Paul leaned forward unfettered.

"Give it up, already; it happened seventeen years ago! He didn’t love you; he was married. You just had the misfortune of catching him at a very weak moment."

"Shut the fuck up," Terra screamed.

Paul sat back in his chair. He had a coldness on his face now unlike any that Mandy had ever seen. And the sharpness of his glare raised the hairs on the back of her neck.

Her mother’s attorney was standing. "Now, everybody just settle down! We’re in a courthouse not a bar."

Paul nodded to himself with his eyes still fixed on Terra.

Her mother’s attorney paced across the room. "As for our offer, I urge you to reconsider, Mr. Ambrose. If we walk into that judge’s chambers today without this deal, we’re gonna cause you a whole lot of trouble that I’m sure you’d just as soon avoid."

Mandy looked at Paul. He had a peculiar demeanor. His chin was slightly elevated -- his head cocked to one side. There was a glimmer of amusement in his eyes of the variety that Mandy had never seen before. His expressions were complex and never the same, but this one communicated the most complicated range of emotions that Mandy had ever seen.

"How’s your son, Damon?" Paul said.

Mandy looked at the attorney. His ruddy complexion had turned gray.

"I guess he’d be about thirteen, by now. Does your wife still walk in on him doing strange things with his action figures? Or perhaps by now, he’s taken to targeting a special friend -- another boy, three to five years his junior."

The attorney stepped over to the spot at the table directly in front of Paul and leaned forward.

"You don’t get it, do you?"

Mandy looked back at Paul who didn’t seem a bit rattled. In fact, he seemed to be responding to the attorney’s threat with a humble smile.

"I’m not a nine year old, Damon," Paul said.

The attorney gaped at Paul blankly with his wire-framed glasses sliding halfway down his oily nose. The silence in the room was unbearable.

Finally, the attorney decided that he wasn’t going to break Paul by invading his space, and he stood up straight and sighed.

"So what’s the word?" Damon said looking at Jason. "Do we have a deal or not?"

Jason looked at Mandy who was so shaken that she didn’t know to respond, she stared at Paul who didn’t look the least bit uncomfortable.

"Not on your life," Paul said quietly.

Everett nodded and looked at Terra. "Alright, I guess we’ll be seein you in judge Weiss’ chambers."

Mandy stood up and followed Jason to the door, but she sensed Paul sitting quietly in place. She turned around in the doorway and looked at him.

Paul stood up calmly and eyed her mother who seemed to be in fearful awe of him. Then he looked at her mother and the attorney that he’d called Damon, and they both seemed frozen in place staring at Dr. Ambrose.

-3-

Courtroom 3 was much more formal than the conference room had been. The walls were of a dark, stained oak accented by brass moldings, and the floor tiles resembled black marble. The wooden benches were flooded with scores of people dressed in their best with grim looks on their faces.

Shortly after they entered, a bailiff walked in dressed in a Wood County Sheriff uniform and instructed everyone to rise. Mandy stood and looked across the room to the benches opposite her own and found her mother standing beside her attorney looking as though she was making a point not to look at Mandy.

The bailiff introduced Judge Weiss, and as soon as he did, the door that he’d come through flew open and a purposeful-looking lady with a modest tan and salt-and-pepper hair stepped inside and climbed up into the judge’s box. Then she sat and announced that everyone else could sit down and started going through a kind of roll-call -- announcing the itinerary as she went along.

Mandy had butterflies something fierce. She nearly jumped out of her skin when Judge Weiss called her name.

Jason stood up in response. "We’re ready, your honor."

Judge Weiss nodded. "Terra Green?"

Her Damon rose and straightened his brown blazer.

"We’re here your honor."

Jason frowned and stood up.

"Very good," Judge Weiss said. "Mr. Barnes, keep your client handy. We’ll meet in my chambers after Overby vs. Overby. Should be sometime after lunch, unless we get behind."

"Your honor," Terra’s attorney was saying.

Mandy eyed him.

"We’re not ready to proceed today, and we’d like to ask for a continuance."

Judge Weiss gave him an irritated look.

"Why didn’t you do that before now?"

The attorney smiled. "Well, we came to court today hoping to save the court’s time by resolving this matter out of court, but something has just been brought to my attention that changes everything."

She shrugged. "Okay, what is it?"

"It’s a delicate matter that we’d rather not discuss here, but I will also be representing my client in another matter that might have a direct baring on the outcome of this case."

Judge Weiss sighed with frustration. "Okay, come up here."
Jason stood up and side stepped his way to the end of the bench and then approached the judge’s bench with her mother’s attorney.

"What’s going on?" Mandy whispered.

Paul shook his head tightly. "I don’t know."

Mandy looked back at the judge’s bench and listened hard, but she couldn’t make out what they were saying. About that time judge Weiss looked at Mandy in a way that made her heart sink. The look on the judge’s face ranged somewhere between surprise and worry.

Then Jason looked back over his shoulder at Paul, and his expression was utterly gloomy.

They whispered back an forth a moment longer, and then Judge Weiss nodded as if deciding, and Jason turned around and walked tiredly back toward the bench.

"Green vs. Green is hereby postponed for one month at which time we will re-evaluate the progress on other pertinent cases."
Jason stopped before the bench and motioned for Paul and Mandy to follow him.

Mandy and Paul stood and made their way out.

The courtroom door hadn’t even shut behind them before Mandy was asking Jason what had happened.

Jason Barnes turned to her and placed his hand on the top of her shoulder.

"Paul and I need to have a discussion. Can you wait here a minute?"

"What’s going on?"

Jason’s face softened bit.

"Everything’s gonna be fine. They’re just throwing out some irritating stall tactics. -- Nothing we can’t handle."

"You sure?"

Jason seemed to go inside himself for a moment. He looked a bit shocked.

Finally, he nodded.

"Yeah," he said more to himself than to her. And then he turned away and led Paul down the hallway of hardwood floors and paneled walls.

Mandy folded her arms and leaned back against the wall beside the door to the courtroom. In a few moments, the courtroom doors opened and a flood of people poured out. As her mother came out, she glanced at Mandy long enough to smirk, and then she brushed past her and on her way.

She stood in the hallway for what seemed like an hour before Dr. Ambrose reappeared. He was walking slowly as if carrying a heavy burden.

Mandy met him halfway down the hall.

"What’s going on?"

Paul shook his head. "She’s just trying to make your life difficult."

"How?"

They started walking toward the elevator.

"Apparently she’s planning to contest your Grandmother’s Will."
Mandy stopped in her tracks.

"Can she do that?"

Paul turned to her and rolled his eyes. "She can try all she wants, but Jason says that she has to prove that your grandmother wasn’t of sound mind, or that she was under some kind of duress, or that the Will is phony."

"Can she?"

Paul shook his head and started walking toward the elevator again, and Mandy caught up with him.

"Is that what’s bothering you?"

Paul sighed and turned to her. "No, but the rest of it isn’t your problem."

Mandy frowned. "What is it?"

Paul looked away from her and made the last few steps to the elevator and pushed the down arrow.

"Paul?"

He turned to her.

"We’ll have to talk about it sooner or later, but right now, I’m exhausted."

The elevator door opened and Paul stepped inside and she followed suit.

She studied him hard on the way down, and Paul was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t seem to notice her. Mandy felt badly for him; part of her wished that she’d never dragged him into this mess.

"Paul?"

He looked at her, but his eyes were glazed over. He seemed to be looking through her rather than at her.

"I really appreciate everything you’re doing for me. If there’s anything at all I can do for you. . . ."

Paul held up his hand.

"Finish your education and make something of yourself. Don’t harbor any resentment for your mother because that’s only going to hurt you."

Mandy smiled, and Dr. Ambrose looked forward at the stainless steel doors again.

"The worst of this is yet to come, you know."

Mandy huffed. "There’s nothing she can do to me that could hurt me any worse than she already has."

Paul turned and faced her. "Oh, yes there is, and now, she wants to hurt you."

"What are you not telling me?"

The door opened and Paul stepped out into the atrium of the courthouse and started toward the door but then he stopped as if recalling something important and turned around to face her.

"There is one other thing."

She stared at him blankly.

"I don’t want to tell you anything definite right now, because I could be wrong."

She touched his hand, and something in Paul’s face softened.

"What is it?" she said.

Paul smiled. "I might know who your father is."

(Continue to scenes 4-)