Mai Legacy
1.14 - Destruction of the Le Chiens
When James and Susan woke up in the early afternoon, as they hadn't gone to bed until around 7am, and checked their mail, they found that the Le Chiens were angry enough to have left them plane tickets to Newcrest.
"Should we go?" Susan asked.
"I don't know why they want us back there, Judge Marshal made his decision, but I don't want to anger them anymore than we already have..." James said quietly.
The two were back in Newcrest by evening.
“This is outrageous!” Hajar screamed.
“Order in the court!” Judge Marshal declared, banging his gravel on his desk.
Immediately after finding their legacy armor missing, the Le Chien family sued the Mais for a king’s ransom. They knew the Mai family had no money and wanted to shut them down forever.
“For the last time, Susan and I have no idea what happened to their armor!” James exclaimed.
Eliza, Lily, and Victor, all of whom were sitting in the back row, shared a special look. What James and Susan didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them.
James and Susan had contacted everyone who had been there that morning to let them know what had happened once they received the letter. Eliza, who had just flown back to Willow Creek that morning to be back with family, turned her car around and headed to Newcrest to watch it all go down. The Fengs also thought it would be interesting to play out, so they flew their private jet to Newcrest just for the court case.
Finally, Penny found out everything from Salim, and immediately booked a plane ticket so she could give a scathing review of it on her talk show the next day.
“You must understand, Judge Marshal, this is our entire family history at stake. If we don’t get the statue back within 24 hours, we’ll have lost centuries of where our family's history! Joaquin deserves the right to carry on our legacy,” Rosaline said calmly, rising to her feet.
“Think of how we feel,” Bronson added, standing up next to his wife.
Judge Marshal gave them a sad look. “I’m sorry, but how you feel won’t stand up in a court of law.”
Rosaline gave Judge Marshal a scathing glare. “Where is Judge Goth or Judge Landgraab?”
Judge Marshal frowned disapprovingly. “Judge Goth recently resigned and became a cop, Judge Landgraab got married and decided against being a judge any longer. And even if they were still judges, you should know you can’t just drop a judge halfway through a hearing. Additionally, this case is already being run incorrectly, as we didn't bring in a jury, leaving it up to me to decide everything. For whatever reason, there's legislation in place that your family specifically doesn't need one, and as wrong as it feels to me, I have to abide by it.”
Rosaline whispered something to Bronson, then they both sat back down. Before Judge Marshal had the chance to say anything else, Rosaline leaned over the fence and whispered loudly “You were right Joaquin, this courthouse isn’t the same place it used to be.”
“You mean it isn’t corrupt like it used to be?” Susan said loudly. "Or, as corrupt anyway, Clearly, this place is still corrupt as hell, even if Judge Marshal here is doing his best to be fair."
The audience all gasped.
“Mrs. Harper, may I remind you not to speak out of turn?” Judge Marshal said.
Susan nodded. “I’m just saying, it’s the Le Chiens who insist we spend nearly an entire day on a plane, flying across the fucking ocean to get all the way to Newcrest every time they want to bring us to court.”
“Mrs. Harper!”
Susan rolled her eyes, but stopped talking.
“I feel that I need to remind everyone that the Goth-Brooks Courthouse, despite some of it's strange rules, has never been corrupt, and that it never will be,” Judge Marshal asserted firmly. "It was built at the request of our late President, and I won't stand for any disrespect of her name."
“Just get on with the trial,” Hajar said under her breath.
“Unless anyone can present me with any compelling evidence to prove it was James and Susan, I can’t convict them,” Judge Marshal said.
“The security we had around the legacy armor was somehow disabled and our security cameras cut out when Hajar and I were out on a date,” Joaquin said bitterly.
“A date? The night our infants suddenly became full grown children? Like that isn’t suspicious at all,” Susan snarled.
“If you two keep interrupting, I am going to have to insist that you two hire lawyers to speak for you,” Judge Marshal sighed.
Susan and Joaquin nodded solemnly.
"Anyway, seeing that no one has any evidence... James, Joaquin. Your statements, please."
James rose to his feet. “Susan and I were at home crying over the loss of the majority of our children’s childhood, how on earth would we have time to steal their statue? And either way, the two of us respect a family history too much to take that away from someone.”
“Joaquin?”
“Look. It’s no secret that our two families hate each other. After their children suddenly got older, it only makes sense that they’d try to seek revenge. I can’t think of any person who’d try to do that other than the Mai family!”
The debate concluded a few hours later, Judge Marshal ruling that he saw no reason to convict the Mai family of a crime there was no evidence they'd committed. The Le Chiens were livid, of course, but James got the feeling they wouldn’t try to do anything. Not with the public spotlight shining on this case, thanks to Penny's presence at the courthouse.
When they got home, Susan opened her arms up wide to embrace Leah, who was waiting at the door. “Mommy won, Leah. Mommy won,” she breathed.
Seth watched from the hallway, arms crossed, jealous of all the attention Leah was getting. James noticed and ran over. “How’s my little boy?”
The four of them treated themselves to a fancy meal that night.
After sitting down, Seth spent a good five minute staring at Susan. Every time Susan spoke to Leah, it was clear to Seth that something was wrong.
“Dad? Why is mommy sad?” Seth asked James, tugging on his sleeve. “She said she won!”
“You’ll understand one day, Seth,” James said quietly.