"You alright Vettie? You're pretty quiet this morning."said Sam Mother as he poured her a second cup of coffee.
"I've got a serious hearing today...and I'm just worried about how things might go...It could get nasty." said Ms. Yvette as she downed her second cup of coffee..
"No Breakfast this morning doll?" he asked.
"No...I'm too nervous..."said Yvette....
Just then, someone who knew her vaguely walked into the diner...
"Yvette...How are you? We've met a few times...at Olivia's place and at uh Beverly's wedding and I think we met at Dabnis and Jasmine's wedding ...I'm Attorney Zoey-" she said.
"Yess you were Olivia's divorce lawyer...I'm not married...but can you swing me a deal like that?" joked Yvette...
Both women laughed...
"You have a hearing today involving the Cohens...I'm going to be there.."said Zoey..
"One of them is filing for divorce?? Already??" asked Yvette..
"I wouldn't know..Neither of them is my client."said Zoey..
''Who is your client? And why do I feel it has something to do with my case?" asked Ms. Yvette
Zoey smiled.
II-
We were all sitting in the huge conference room waiting for the principle players in this drama..
Having been in here a few times now...I was no longer intimidated...
My girlfriend, Bee Bee, Attorney Beatrice "Bee Bee" Evans held my hand softly in the palm of hers..She sensed that that gave me a sense of calm...
I looked at her and smiled...
My buddy, Kahlil, Attorney Kahlil Ahmed held his girlfriend...
Attorney Sofia Garcia around her waist.....
The four of us looked serene...
This seemed upsetting to Clinic CFO , Dr. Renier, who wanted this thing over and with as less fanfare as possible and with his company paying out less money as possible.. What he didn't want was to pay out a multi million dollar settlement and have his clinic's reputation on the line.
His brilliant Attorney, Brenda Jordan assured him that this wouldn't be the case.
What did kind of make us nervous was that our partner, Mr. Cozen, the father of our client, Justin Cozen was on hand today..We didn't know he was coming..
Father and son,
Sat laughing and talking quietly...
His wife, Joan Cohen looked sick...
She passed her sleeping baby to an attendant...
We were all waiting for Ms. Yvette.
Suddenly...There she was with Ms. Jade
who was carrying some papers..
and Dr. Goggins, our DNA specialist....
and three other people..
Zoey Easter, an Attorney....
Mike Tristan, Mrs. Cohen's former client, who outside of us, nobody knew
and a pretty young Black woman , who nobody knew...
"That's Zoey Easter, She handled Olivia Bennett-Alexander's divorce from Elwood Barnes.."said Bee Bee...
"I knew if anyone knew...You would know.."I laughed..
Sofia laughed...
So did Kahlil...
''Who the hell are these people? Is that the guy whose sperm got inseminated into my wife?" said Justin Cohen...
''Justin calm down...Let us handle this."said Yvette..
"Yes son, simmer down."said Mr. Cohen....
"Good Morning everyone...Let us begin."said Brenda Jordan, certain she had the winning hand...
One thing being a lawyer has taught me...Things aren't always as they may seem.
III-
The arguments began....Brenda Jordan presented information on all of the clinic's employees interviewed and on every aspect of the investigation...She was even so brazen as to ask OUR investigator, Jade Lee
of her conclusions to our findings...
Her sumnation took all if not most of the morning...It was almost Noon...
"There for, it is obvious that our clinic is not at fault...Still some thing untoward has happened here and we are willing to pay 100K for your obvious suffering which I feel is more than generous..
She was surprised when Ms. Yvette, Bee Bee and Sofia stood up...
"I'm afraid we can not take that deal...We agree that it is now evident ,it is factually evident that Mrs. Cohen was not inseminated with someone elses sperm from this clinic...but this clinic did make one mistake....and that one mistake was...They did not check to see if Mrs. Cohen was already pregnant when she came here...before inseminating her with her husband's sperm.."said Yvette..
"I'm an Attorney...A single woman...I take birth control which while I don't receive it from your clinic...I do receive it...and I am checked at all times for pregnancy whenever I go....And I'm not trying to have a baby."said Bee Bee ,showing copies of her many tests..
"I'm also an Attorney...A single woman...I take birth control which while I don't receive it from your clinic...I do receive it...and I am checked at all times for pregnancy whenever I go....And I'm not trying to have a baby."said Sofia ,showing copies of her many tests..
''Ms. Jade Lee and I found in the particular case study the day that Mrs. Cohen was inseminated that she was not checked for pregnancy and we located the two practitioners who attended to her and they will testify that they did not."said Kahlil..
''We aren't blaming them and we don't wish for them to suffer any repercussions..Most people who come to a fertility clinic come to get pregnant, they come because they can't get pregnant by any normal means...They understandably figured she wasn't pregnant, still it is standard practice to check and this was not done." I said.
Ms. Jade concurred....
"Had this been done...The clinic would not be in question here about anything." she said.
This bombshell sent shockwaves around the conference room....It had been worth waiting for..
''Well I can see how she might have been pregnant....Heh heh heh...The way I was putting it down the last couple of days...heh heh heh...she was practically running from me the way I was jumping on her...every damn minute..Heh heh heh!"laughed Justin Cohen.
His laughter and self congratulatory manner soon came to a halt when he thought about why they were here in the first place....The baby was African-American and obviously not his...
"But wait a minute!!!" he said..
"I am Attorney Zoey Easter ..I am representing the baby's father, Mr. Mike Tristan and his wife, Valarie Tristan... I have with me Dr. Goggins of Goggins DNA labs...She took DNA information from the baby, Mrs. Cohen and Michael Tristan and it is a 99.9 percent match...He is the baby's father." said Zoey..
"Yes, I have proof of that."said Dr. Goggins..
"You....You...You cheated on me??? WHO IS HE??" asked Justin Cohen..
"I'm sorry...I'm sorry...It was a one time thing...He was my client....We had sex just that one time after his acquittal...and I never saw him again....I swear...I am sooo sorry ….I was angry at you the entire trial for YOUR AFFAIR with that attorney at your international office...I was sooo angry....I didn't mean to get pregnant..."Joan Cohen sobbed..
"OH MY GOD!!!!" sighed Mr. Cohen...
Joan looked at Mike Tristan and asked him.....
''You have a wife? You didn't tell me you were married."she said.
"I wasn't during the trial...I met Valarie after the trial...months after...She's an Attorney also...A Public Defender like you....Over in Camden, near where I work...We met and we hit it off and uh we got engaged and we got married about a month ago... I told her about all of this.."said Mike..
''And I heard about this case on the news as I guess everybody did and I told him to seek counsel...I had read that Zoey Easter represented one of my heroes...Olivia Bennett-Alexander...so I called her and got her involved with this.." said Valarie Tristan..
"Smart woman..."said Attorney Brenda Jordan, who looked at Ms. Yvette....
"Nicely played Ms. Yvette Jones...I bow my head to you...It isn't often that I get blindsided....You play the game well...Now what do we do?" she asked..
''We can break for lunch or we can wrap this thing up.."said Yvette..
"It's 12:30 pm...Let's wrap it up." said Brenda..
IV-
You could hear a pin drop in that conference room!
Dr. Renier was sick, he held his head down in his lap....
Brenda couldn't believe she had been out played....
Mr. Cohen was proud of the work his attorneys had done...They had snatched a seeming victory out of a near impossible situation... He was ashamed of both his son and his daughter in law and their childish behavior...
Justin Cohen didn't feel so great, knowing his wife had cheated on him and had another man's baby...He was certain she wanted a divorce , especially knowing that he had cheated on her ,which was why she made him leave his Multi National firm he had been representing...It had caused him to travel too much and thus be tempted into the bed of another woman...
Joan Cohen's secret was out...Now she was the mother of man she didn't really love's baby and he had already gotten married...She was certain Justin would demand a divorce...
Ms. Yvette ironically enough was in the drivers seat...She had played her cards close to the vest and pulled out a victory..but at what price?
This was another time I didn't feel that good about "Winning..if that was indeed what this was.
I'm sure Bee Bee felt the same way..
So Did Kahlil..
So did Sofia.
And Ms. Jade..
''What are you proposing?" asked Brenda Jordan.
''We are asking for 500K in damages...No More.."said Yvette.
"And the Clinic is blameless in this."said Brenda Jordan..
''That's right!" said Yvette.
Dr. Renier was relieved...His Clinic's reputation remained spotless and while 500K was a lot more than the 100K he was prepared to lose...It wasn't a million dollars...He could live with that..
''That's fair...We agree." he said.
"Okayyy I'll draw the papers up and we'll precede from there.."said Brenda Jordan who shook Yvette's hand..
"Pleasure going up against you...Really...You are incredible...I hope to work with you next time.." she said and smiled..
"Thank you...Who knows?" said a smiling Yvette...
''Look, I'm willing to try to get you pregnant again if you, if you want to be with me.."said Justin..
"You mean...You don't want a divorce?" asked Joan Cohen..
"No....Do you?" asked Justin...
"No...." she said..
She turned to Michael and Valarie...
"Are you two ready to raise a child?" she said and passed the baby to Mike ,who was enamored with his son..
"Oh My God.....Look at himm...He's so cute!" he said..
"YESSSSS....Seeing how happy my husband is.....Most definitely....Are you..Are you giving him to us?" asked Valarie..
''Yes...He is Mike's son...I just would like to....to be able to visit him sometimes..."said Joan..
"Oh of course...No doubt.."said Valarie..
"We can work all of that out....I've got papers right here.." said Zoey...
"Awww that's sooo sweet.."said Sofia, tears welling up in her eyes..
"It is.."said Bee Bee , who was also crying profusely...
Even Ms. Jade 's eyes were welling up with tears...
"Come on Buddy...let's hit the vending machine...I'm starving.." I said to Kahlil..
''Yeah man..I hear ya."said Kahlil.
"Yvette, I never want to play Poker against you....You played this close to the vest...and gambled and pulled out a win..."said Mr. Cohen, one of our partners..
"I got lucky sir.."said Yvette..
"No you didn't get lucky...You're a smart woman...One of the smartest at our firm...Good job...You and your guys take the next five days off and there will be a nice bonus in all of your paychecks."said Mr. Cohen..
''Thank you Mr. Cohen." Yvette said..
The Press was waiting in the lobby...
Dr. Renier and his Attorney said only that we had come to an equitable agreement and settled out of court....They would say no more and quietly exited..
The rest of us exited out of the basement and away from the maddening crowd!
EPILOUGE-
Even though Josie's was the main hangout....More and More...CURLEY'S BAR was becoming a place to hang out...Mainly because it was Karen Page's bar of choice..
"Well Yvette, I heard you pulled out a hell of a win in an almost unwinnable case today..."said ADA Karen Page...
"It might not have been so sweet if not for this lady here...She's a hell of an Attorney and gave me one hell of a save.."said Yvette looking gushingly at Zoey Easter..
''Awww no...I barely said a word...That was all you Yvette.."laughed Zoey...
"I told you this gal was special didn't I?" said Olivia, who was putting in a rare appearance at the bar tonight to celebrate with Yvette..
"Hey here come the drinks...This round is on me.."said Gary Lockwood, the only male at the table..
Yvette was sitting on his lap and he was holding her gently...
Mango Martinis arrived for both Yvette and Karen..
Citris Martinis arrived for Olivia and Zoey...
and a Beer arrived for Gary..
Lt. Tragg walked in and walked up to their table..
''So Vettie..I saw on the news that that clinic settled for an undisclosed amount out of court huh?" he sneered.
"Yupper!" was all Yvette would say..
"You Attorneys are something else...You know and I know that the woman was probably pregnant when she came there....She was bangin some other dude...She bein a Public Defender and bleedin heart...it was probably one of her clients...Heh heh heh.." laughed Lt. Tragg..,who surprisingly was right on the money, though Yvette had no intentions of telling him that for once, he was correct.
"You always see the worst in people Lieutenant!"said Yvette..
"I'm a Homicide detective darlin...that's my job...I'm an expert at human nature." he said as he walked away..
"Or at least that's the rumor.."laughed Karen Page..
Gary ,Yvette, Olivia and Zoey all enjoyed a hearty laugh...
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