Page 55 of Raymond's Forever

“That was brutal.”

“Yeah, are you okay?”

“Yes.” She tightened her grip on him, then stepped back. They had booked two rooms, and it was supposed to be Jason and Raymond in one, with Ilsa and Amelia in the other, however, they had discussed ahead of time that they would get connecting rooms and they would be with their respective partners for the night. They had been doing that since the trial had started. When she felt better, she stepped back and looked at the other three with a frown.

“What’s wrong?”

“Who were those gentlemen sitting in the back of the courtroom? I noted they were taking notes furiously.”

“Oh,” Raymond said with a laugh. “Five of them were lawyers for the hospital, they will be in our position at the table when they take Ervin and Perkins to trial for the medical malpractice, deaths, and injuries.”

“Your defamation trial is to set the precedence of how bad these guys are,” Jason said, then chuckled. “How hard was it to put doctor before their names when you were on the stand? I noticed that only once you used their last names without the title. I don’t know if everyone caught it, but it was a glaring omission.”

“Jesus,” she sighed and took the bottle of water Ilsa handed her. “That was so hard, I had to really concentrate on not just saying their last names. Though they don’t deserve it, I had to use their title as professional respect. If I slipped up, I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, it was hard for me to say their title too.” Raymond hugged her again, removed his suit jacket, and loosened his tie.

“What happens next?”

“The three of us sit down and go over our closing arguments.”

“Do you want to order room service or go down to the dining room for dinner?”

“Actually,” Jason said with a grin. “I would kill for a pizza. Sometimes I miss pizza delivery where we live. Throwing a frozen one in the oven just isn’t the same.”

They all shared a laugh, and agreed. While Amelia went over to the other room to change, she called the order in, and went back to sit in a chair and watch them. She didn’t speak until she went down to the lobby to pick up the food order, and when she returned, she saw them picking up their papers.

As they ate, she looked at them. “What happens after you give the closing argument?”

“They will give theirs first, then I’ll give mine. The judge will instruct the jury what they can and can’t decide on, then when they reach their decision, they tell the judge, who in turn will call us all back to hear what they decided.”

“Don’t think it’s going to be a quick decision,” Ilsa said. “It could take hours or even days for them to reach a verdict. We not only got these hotel rooms because we didn’t want to drivethree hours each way, but we wanted to be close when the jury was out.”

“Okay,” Amelia continued to eat her pizza, and they talked about non-trial stuff until Raymond reached out and took one of her hands in his.

“What is it, Amelia? You look worried.”

“I guess I am. Their lawyers questioned everyone you brought up to the stand for a week. However, they refused to ask any questions of Shay or myself. Then when it was their turn to bring up rebuttal witnesses, they said they had none.”

“That could be because they didn’t have anyone to call,” Ilsa said gently. “We called everyone that worked with you at the clinic to the stand. Not one of them said anything good about Perkins nor Ervin. We even called up some of your former patients. We’re saving the other ones for the next round.”

Someone’s phone went off, and it was Raymond, he looked at the caller ID and whipped his head around to Amelia. “Do not say a word, it’s opposing counsel.”

Amelia frowned and Ilsa wrote furiously on a napkin, she saw, ‘Deal,’ and nodded.

“Morris,” Raymond barked into the phone after picking it up on the sixth ring.

“It’s Edwards.”

“Let me put you on speaker, I’m with Black and Miller.” He looked at the others with a smirk and put his finger to his lips when he looked at Amelia. “We’re all here, what do you have?”

“We’d like to offer your client a deal before closing arguments.”

“No deal.”

“You didn’t hear what we’re offering?”

“You don’t have anything to offer that we would be interested in.”