Though there wasn't enthusiastic response to an earlier call for ideas and feedback, I'm pushing on with putting up ideas and hoping readers and friends will actually respond. Soon.
<drumming fingers> Hey, is there anyone out there?? Bored...
Here's the idea this week. How's about an LW story where a female attorney is shown making opening statements / summing up why her client is innocent despite his own estranged wife's accusation that he was the one who killed her lover? The estranged wife watches from the gallery and glares at both the prosecutor and her estranged husband who is the defendant. As the attorney sits down, she recalls...
Flashback
The husband is facing his new attorney, a little surprised that it is his sister-in-law. She asks him point blank if he's guilty. He is silent and just when she pleads with him to talk to her if he wishes to mount a defence. Because things are not looking good for him and his last defence attorney had given up.
Just as she is about to give up and end the session, he surprises her by speaking up. He says quietly that his only guilt is in believing foolishly that those wedding vows were forever.
He reveals that he first suspected his wife, her sister, was having an affair when the neighbour hinted that a man was coming round rather often in the afternoons. He had confronted his wife and that was when she'd offered to quietly divorce him if he'd give her a half share of the house and their investments. She humiliates him by reminding him that she'd helped bail him out when his business went bankrupt during the financial crisis. Her attitude clearly shows she no longer has any respect for him. He pleads with her to give their marriage another chance. For their child if not for their love. She scoffs at him and says there's no love when he's struggling to keep the job he'd found only after two years of being unemployed after he went out of business. The attorney notices how he clenches his fist. He says he refused to give her a divorce and she threw a tantrum. He's shocked because it seems she's almost another person, not the woman he thought he knew. He decided to start monitoring the house to safeguard Ruth (the child) and himself.
He's increasingly alarmed by what the monitoring shows. She's bringing her lover around when their child is home from school and more than once the child is calling for her mother even as she impatiently tells the daughter to wait as she is busy with uncle Hank. When Ruth appears in the doorway, Hank seems to laugh at her and say she'd better start calling him daddy, she refuses and runs away crying. David said he decided to agree to the divorce on condition that he gets custody, after seeing that.
When his attorney asks if there's more, he looks away and says no. She is suspicious and asks for the tapes from his friend. She finds several disturbing videos. One particular video is damning, it shows his wife and her lover plotting to accuse him of violence and therefore force his hand in terms of the settlement. They are shown laughing.
The attorney is shown to gritting her teeth at how terrible her sister is. His friend asks if she's going to help him. After she says yes, he brings out a video that he says is crucial evidence. It is a video of the day of the attack. She watches it and stares in shock at the screen.
She asks him at next interview why he didn't reveal there was crucial evidence. He says, obviously anguished, that for all her vicious behaviour, Letty is still the mother of his child.
Last day of trial, after a call by the defence to have a closed discussion with the judge and prosecution. When the prosecutor and defence exit the judge's chamber, they look grim. The wife is glaring at her husband while he is staring into space. Judge asks if, due to new evidence, the prosecutor has some announcement. The prosecutor announces that due to the emergence of crucial evidence, they have decided to drop charges against the husband. The wife is shown to be outraged and protesting loudly. The prosecutor also announces that charges will instead be filed against Letty Fogarty. She is shown being placed under arrest despite her protests.
The husband is crying as he is set free and goes home to see his child.
Epilogue
A year later.
The attorney visits ex-brother-in-law at his new house. It's smaller but cozy. After he puts Ruth to bed. He thanks her again for all the help she has given him. She asks why he's bringing it up again, he's thanked her many times over the year. He says softly that he's aware of the risk she took with her career and conscience. She asks what he means. He says that after the case and just before he moved out of old house, his neighbour had a drink with him and talked about how the attorney he had kept asking him questions and that she'd asked an odd question on her last visit: when had he first alerted David to his wife's infidelity? His neighbour told him that he'd been so exasperated that he'd said the stubborn, honest fool next door had so much faith in his wife that he'd ignored his neighbour's hints for almost half a year before he'd finally seemed to wake up and confront his wife. And that was when he'd asked his friend to show him the tape of the bedroom the day of the attack. He asks the attorney why she'd risked so much to help him when she'd obviously realised the truth.
She replies, before she explained her motives for helping him,, she wants to know when he knew and what actually happened.
He smiles bitterly. He said he'd been alarmed when his neighbour first hinted at Letty's unusual behaviour. When he found out the truth, he was devastated. He decided against confronting her till his position improved. He installed bugging equipment and knew where the cameras were. Six months later, he spotted an opportunity when his wife and her lover decided to set him up. He says on the day of the attack, he'd taken Letty's call and decided to let them think they'd succeeded in ambushing him. As agreed, he'd watched as Hank punched and kicked Letty as they'd planned. That Letty had fallen unconscious was a plus. He walked in and started pleading for mercy from a blind corner. He laughed as he recalled Hank's confusion. As Hank approached him, he brought out a stun gun and stuns him. Unexpectedly，Hank fell and hit his head on the corner of the foot of the bed. David is momentarily stunned by what has happened but recovers and calls the police.
She says she realised something wasn't right when the neighbour said he'd hinted at Letty's affair earlier than David had claimed. When she looked more closely at the crucial evidence, she'd seen a certain flash in a corner of the mirror, it was a part of a tattoo that was familiar to her. She'd recognised part of the tattoo as she'd suggested the design when he'd proposed to her sister and asked what would symbolise his vows to her sister as Letty was demanding proof that he'd be faithful forever. At that moment she'd asked herself why if he'd been defending himself as the soundtrack of the video suggested, his arm was raised and therefore reflected in the mirror. She says she believes his claim that Hank's death was an accident and hopes David can start life anew now that he is free of the nightmarish marriage.
She wishes him well and leaves. She recalls the design she'd suggested to David as strains of a song plays.
BTW tentative title is Innocent.
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So what do you think? Let me know. I'll be waiting for feedback.
