The Prenuptial Agreement

"She's my big sister. We're twins."

"Your sister testified that you never saw your mother from age ten until her death and that she has not seen your father from age ten until now. When did you last see your mother?"

"In a hotel room. I was ten. My father brought me to the hotel and I saw her there. I never saw her again."

"Why?"

"My parents were getting divorced. It was explained to me that Susan would live with mom and I would live with dad."

"Did you try to contact your sister before you called her a year ago?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"When I was twelve, my father told me my mother was dead and my sister had been adopted by another family."

"You believed him?"

"I don't know if I did or not. I didn't really believe it as I grew up, but you have to know my dad. He's incredibly forceful. Every time I asked him, every time I tried to bring up the subject, he'd tell me she was gone forever and not to think about it."

"How then did you find your sister and why did you contact her?"

"It was totally an accident. I was clearing out some old newspaper clippings, mostly business clippings that had been sent to my dad, when I saw an obituary. It was my mother's. It said she was survived by a daughter, Susan, and a son, Michael. She'd been dead for nearly four years. I contacted an investigations firm and they ran Susan down for me. It took them a few months because she'd moved and had changed her name to Turner."

"Did you know why your parents divorced?"

"Dad told me mom left him for another man."

"What happened when you contacted your sister?"

"She first refused to talk to me. Then it came out that she thought I knew what had happened . . . about what my father did to her. Then I realized she was scared that he'd come after her. That's why she said I couldn't tell anyone."

"You'd never told your wife about the sister you'd lost?"

"Not exactly. She knew I had a sister but I let her think my sister had died."

"Why?"

"You don't know my family. My father is a force of nature. If he knew I was talking about Susan, he'd be screaming at me for months straight."

"You're also scared of your father?"

"Everyone is scared of dad. Me less than most. Now that I have my own money."

"Have you ever cheated on your wife?"

"Never."

"You've never had sexual relations with Ms. Turner?"

"Bite your tongue. Of course not. She's my twin sister."

"What is your current relationship with your sister?"

"Until this happened, it was great. Well, it had become great. I understand some of what she's gone through, not that I can ever really know."

"And now?"

"She's having a hard time. She's scared. I won't let my father near her."

"Thank you, Mr. Hinton."

The Judge dismissed me from the stand. I noticed that Connie's hands were trembling as she checked through her notes.

Jack stood up. "Your honor, if it pleases the Court, we have voluminous evidence to enter into the record to demonstrate that Susan Turner is in fact Susan Hinton, that she and Mr. Hinton are twins, that their parents were divorced sixteen years ago and that their mother died in the months before Ms. Turner changed her name and moved from San Diego. We can present witnesses who knew both children and we have a large number of photographs of them together up to time of their parents divorce. But your honor, we ask that in light of Ms. Turner's testimony you rule immediately against the motion to enforce Section Five of the prenuptial agreement. To be blunt, your honor, it is pointless to continue to argue this matter further. Mr. Hinton has in fact been keeping a secret from his wife but that secret was a sister who had been terribly scarred by their father's sexual abuse and who demanded, as a price for meeting her brother, that she be protected from their father and that no one would know of her. There is no adultery here."

Connie took my arm and led Susan and me into an unused Jury Room. Jack was meeting in Chambers with Michaels to discuss the motions. Connie apologized to Susan for her questioning. When Susan went to the restroom with Melinda, Connie shook her head, "I'm sorry I was so hard on her."

"I didn't think you were cruel."

Connie was obviously adrenaline stoked and needed to talk. I was exhausted and needed to listen."I had to drag it out of her. I was surprised Michaels didn't object because every question I asked was leading. I suppose he realized an objection would only make his client look more unsympathetic. You know what leading a witness is?"

"No idea. Just what I see on TV."

"When you're examining your own witness, you can't give them a question full of facts and then ask 'Is that right?'. You're supposed to ask them more general questions and let them tell the story. That doesn't work all that well unless you can rehearse your witness a lot - and believe me, you can over-rehearse testimony so it doesn't sound convincing. So you ask a lot of small questions and build up what you're trying to get at. Susan was very reluctant so I had to push her into a corner."

"I'm glad that Jack had you question her."

"He realized when he met Susan that he couldn't do it. He's too blunt and she's too vulnerable."

"She's been through a lot. A lot that you don't know about."

"I can imagine."

"My mother lived in fear. Susan told me that after she found out about the abuse, he threatened to kill them both. He might have, too."

"This is all in strict confidence, you know. Now your father has been named on record. If he does anything, he'll go to prison. I think Susan needs to get Court protection."

"You should tell her that." Connie paused. "If you don't mind my asking, when you got close to Susan, that must have changed . . . um, affected . . ."

"It completely blew my relationship with dad out of the water. I'm still dealing with it."

A few minutes later, Connie took Susan's hands and told her they could get her a protective order, probably from this same judge, that would prevent our father from contacting or coming near her. She told her that she has friends now, people who will protect her. Susan only nodded.

"Remember, Suze," I added, "I have a ton of money. You have mom's. We can handle anything."

Jack walked in. "Here's the deal. We'll withdraw our motion without prejudice and theirs gets denied."

"That's great," Connie said. Turning to me, "Total victory. They lose but we keep the right to claim she's breached the prenup."

"Susan, you were fantastic," Jack said. "Has Connie brought up the idea of a protective order? She has? Great. I ran that by the Judge while Michaels was there, just so he'd get the message to stay out of Susan's life during the divorce. We can have an order in place this afternoon."

"Does my father have to know where I am?" Susan asked.

"No," Connie answered.

"In fact," Jack said, "I want to make your brother and our law firm the only lawful contacts your father can use to reach you. If he or anyone who works for him violates the order, we'll be on him like white on rice."

"White on rice," I said, "I haven't heard that one in years." I turned to Susan. "He's trying for that good ole boy thing." She managed a weak smile.

End of part one.

(This story is a small attempt to show a partially realistic courtroom. The court action is a hearing, not a trial, so the parties didn't exchange witness lists and didn't have an opportunity to depose witnesses. That means surprise is possible. Surprise is otherwise not only frowned upon but can result in sanctions imposed by the judge in a civil case or dismissal of charges in a criminal case. Much of the questioning could be objected to as leading. When you are questioning your own witness you aren't allowed to say "And then this and this happened, isn't that right?" You have to lead the witness bit by bit or sit back and hope that it all comes out of the witness' mouth in one complete piece. That makes for a boring time, both in court and on paper - a lot of tiny questions that pile up. I have no idea whether this kind of prenuptial agreement is legal anywhere, but it follows the generally acceptable form of "what's mine remains mine and what's yours remains yours".)