Another chapter! I hope I didn't make too many mistakes with the law-English in this chapter. Have fun and enjoy
When the phone had rung, he hadn't thought it was something serious. But then it had turned out to be another nightmare. He was on his way to the juvie. What in hell's name had gotten into the kid again? He was smart enough to know he was standing in a position which didn't allow him any mistakes. And now that. He had no clue how he was going to get the kid out of that again. It was impossible. Normally he ever had an ass up his sleeve, but not this time. This was way too huge as if he was able to convince the state attorney to drop charges. Well done kid.
As he entered the room, Ryan was already sitting there – blue jumpsuit and a face like stone. He went over to him, and sat down. He couldn't help it, but sighed.
"I had hoped I never will meet you here again." He said, but got no reaction. As usual Ryan was avoiding eye contact and as usual he wasn't in the mood for talking.
"What did you think, when you were doing this? Or better – did you think of something at all?" Ryan only shrugged his shoulders. This indifference broke the camel's back. This kid had no clue what a mess he was in.
"Shell I tell you what? This is bad. And with bad I mean really bad. Kid, they caught you with drugs. This is no petty offence. No, this is seen as a capital crime. Do you even understand what this means?" He still had caught no reaction and he only wanted to know what Ryan had to say about all this, if he had to say something anyway. In somehow it felt hard to believe Ryan had dealt with drugs. He never was drunk, he had stopped smoking from the day he had come to live with them, and he had been on so many parties but never came back stoned or high.
"Okay, you don't wanna talk to me. But you have to. Ryan, I'm still on your side and I can't imagine you're one of these cold people sending drug addicted children into death. That's not you. Tell me why they've found you with coke in your pockets."
"'Cause I haven't been carefully enough." Eh? Since when was Ryan smug? He never had behaved disrespectful and smug like all other youths he had to work with. That had been what had made him being different to them. When had Ryan turned into one of them? And why?
"Ryan, this is nothing to be joking about. This is serious. You're still on probation and they caught you with drugs. This will give you at least one year, because you offended against your conditions of probation and approximately one or two years because of the drugs."
"Then I'll have a lot of time to think about what I've done." That was enough. No matter what had gotten into this boy, he would knock it right out of his head. He slammed his hand onto the table. It had an effect, Ryan flinched.
"Stop this and start to tell me what has happened."
"They caught me with drugs." He…one moment – in a sudden he remembered the night in which Ryan had brought Seth home.
"I want to know why. Is this what your father is telling you to do?" Immediately Ryan looked at him.
"I…It's better if you go. I can handle this on my own." Well, this was going to be more complicated than it had been when they had met the first time.
"Why? Are you afraid to rat on your father? Honestly a father who makes his son committing crimes for him isn't worth to be called a father."
"Stop, this okay? I guess…I don't want you to work on my case anymore." It took a while until he got what the boy wanted to tell him.
"You want me to revoke my mandate? You can't do this to me. Kid you're on the fast road into jail."
"Jail or death. Not much of a choice." Shit. He had forgotten Frank Atwood was a violent man who wasn't going to be happy about his son telling the judge his father was the one who stood behind all this.
"Ryan, this is even more reason for me to help you."
"Mr. Cohen, I've made my decision. I think you have enough other things to take care of right now." Mr. Cohen? This boy pulled out all the stops. He couldn't help it, but do what the boy had told him. He didn't reach him. The distance between them had grown. They weren't Sandy and Ryan. They were Mr. Cohen and felon. They were strangers. The last six months had turned Ryan exactly into a person he never should have become.
"Okay, I guess we leave it with that for today. Maybe you need some extra time to think." He got up and went off. He had to visit his wife in rehab. His life had turned into busy stress. How he hated it. Everyday he wished things were becoming normal again. But they didn't.
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"Hey honey, how are things going at home?" His wife asked him when he arrived. She looked good – better than ever in his point of view.
"Uh…good I think." He answered. She had enough on her mind and didn't need to bother with his problems at home.
"Okay Sandy. I know I'm here to solve some serious problems, but you can't hide anything from me and only because I'm here, it doesn't mean I can't help you." Wow, his wife had a talent to see through people.
"Well, Seth has a hard time. You're here and you know…I don't think he's good with how things are going lately."
"Did you talk to him?"
"Everyday in the morning and before going to bed. It's not like he's not telling me anything. I just can't help him. You're here and…"
"Ryan isn't there as well." She finished his sentence. "Why don't they stay in contact?"
"Ryan had changed and Seth has no idea how to cope with it and I neither."
"What does it mean?" That the boy had become a smug indifferent kid who had turned into a complete stranger in those six months. But he couldn't tell her that. Although she didn't accept him as her son, she had some kind of feelings for him. He didn't want to foment the conflict she already was in. The conflict: Caleb or family. The conflict which had brought her here.
"The boy's in trouble again." He couldn't lie to her.
"What trouble?"
"Juvie. The police had caught him with some coke in his pockets." He said honestly. He needed to get rid of all his thoughts.
"But you don't think he…"
"No, it's not his fault and I know who's behind all this. But as long as the boy isn't talking, I can't help him and thus he'll have at least two even three years jail coming up to him."
"What? You have to prevent this."
"He wanted me to revoke my mandate."
"What? Are you serious?" He only nodded. "And who's helping him now? If you know he's innocent then you can't let things go just like that. Someone has to help him. You have to help him." He, he, he. Always he. He hated it. He hated to carry the can for the mess other produced. He was fed up to his back teeth. He had to make a cut: his family stood in first place and... the boy obviously didn't want to be a part of it. So, no matter how hard it was, he had to drop him.
"How? I have to be there for you and you're here. Two hours away from Newport. Seth has his problems to deal with everything. There is no room for one more, especially if this one doesn't want me to help. We have to accept that probably nobody can help this boy." Now it was out and he felt much better.
"How can you say that? Have you forgotten what he has done for you…for us?"
"No I haven't. But…look: my job is, getting him out of jail, but this probably means his father beating him to death, plus: I don't think he's cruel enough to send his father back into jail, only for his own advantage. And without mandate I can't reach anything. No attorney will talk to me about this case, so I even can't reach anything through the back door."
"I hate my dad." He heard her mumble.
"What?"
"I hate my Dad. All this was his doing. He had gotten Ryan's father out of jail." She nearly screamed these words.
"And he had done a good job."
"Not yet. You're still there. Help Ryan. He deserves it, no matter how he had changed. Don't think about me. This here is my fault and I have to carry the can for it. But not our kids." He took her into his arms. Again he was grateful for having a strong woman liker she was as wife.
"I love you."
"I know and that's why you go and help our kids."
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"Hey, is it work, you're doing?" Seth came in and sat down in front of him.
"Yeah. Listen Seth, I need your help. From whom did you get the information that Ryan's dad forces him to commit crimes?"
"Uhm…Theresa…uh…Diaz…yeah, Theresa Diaz. Why? Is he in trouble?" Seth looked at him.
"Well, yes. They caught him with drugs, plus he doesn't want me to help him."
"What? I…You don't believe that he…dealt with it or?" What he believed didn't matter. The facts said: Ryan was a drug dealer and fact was: no judge would like that.
"No, I don't believe it. That's why I have to help him. What's a little complicated without mandate. So I have to see what I can reach through the back door."
"Well, here you have her address." Seth scribbled something down on a napkin and then left him again. Okay, now he had someone who probably could confirm his suspicions, but how to get this information to court? He had tried to talk to the attorney, but had reached nothing. Hearings about youth criminal cases weren't public. Thus only as legally appointed lawyer one got more information. Sometimes he wished he was as cruel as Caleb Nichol. Stop. This was it. He had gotten an idea and it wasn't as stupid as he thought. Okay, he was going to break the law and yes, he could lose his accreditation as lawyer due to this, but…hell it was Ryan. And once again his logical reasoning was beaten by his emotions.
He rang the doorbell. Julie Cooper-Nichol opened.
"Sandy. Nice to see you. How are you? And how is Kirsten? I hope you can sort things out soon." How he hated this superficial and in intriguer bitch of a red haired woman. In medieval she would have ended up on the stake, but nowadays she was the wife of the richest and most powerful man in Newport.
"Yeah, everything's fine. Is Caleb there?"
"He is, come in. He enjoys the sun at the pool." She let him through the monstrous house, the right place for two monsters. Caleb lay at the pool, reading the newspaper.
"Hey Caleb." He said when he had reached him. Julie Coop soon had realized that this conversation wasn't meant for her ears.
"Sanford, to what do I owe the honour?"
"A few years jail." How he hated this man, his smugly behaviour, his wife and everything he had done to him and his family.
"What are you talking about?"
"A little deal."
"A deal? What kind of deal?"
"You arrange a meeting for me with the state attorney working on Ryan's case and I will forget about a charge."
"What? What are you talking about and why do you think I can arrange a meeting with an attorney I even don't know who he or she is? And why do you still care for this boy? When he's back in jail, he probably deserves it."
"No he doesn't."
"He wouldn't be in jail then. Sorry, but I can't do anything for you."
"Are you sure? What about incitement to a fakery of criminal offence, aiding and abetting to child abuse in at least two cases, as well as to drug dealing and corruption – or do you think I believe you got Frank Atwood legally out of jail?" Caleb sighed and put the Newspaper aside.
"You don't have any evidence to proof any of this."
"He does." He heard a female voice from behind. It was Marissa.
"Marissa, what are you doing here?"
"Helping a friend. And if necessary I can make a statement. I've listen to some of your mysterious phone calls and I also know you were doing all this only to make my Mum marry you. You used Oliver as bait – an instrument. He has had enough reason to make a statement Ryan had battered him up, although he hadn't. And there were enough evidence in the past to believe this. But this didn't work and my Mum wasn't too happy about Ryan still being in Newport and told you she would leave you if you don't change this."
"Don't dare…"
"Don't dare what? Telling the truth? Caleb you can't threaten me. I still have a Dad I can live with. And do you think, after all you've witnessed with my Mum and my Dad, she will still be your wife when you're in jail? She won't, as well as she wouldn't have staid with Ryan still being around. She hates him, for some reason, and she made you fulfilling her cruel plans. You were only her instrument. And now you're caught in a trap." He never had liked Julie's characteristics. But this time they were helpful. Why hadn't he noticed earlier how much Julie Cooper was in Marissa?
"Okay, you caught me. I call you."
"What?" A hysterical scream came out of the background. It was a female one. He always had known she was nosy. "Caleb, you know what it means if you dare doing this. He's in jail and that's the place he belongs to!"
"I know Julie, but I don't want to keep him company." Caleb answered. He was amused to watch this spectacle in front of his eyes: the gruesome twosome on their straight way to horror. Man did he like this.
"But he's destroying everything! Even if he's absent he managed ruining my life."
"What is he destroying now?" Marissa asked smug.
"My marriage or did you forget what it means to me, being Caleb Nichol's wife."
"I don't know…money?"
"Marissa why do you still care for this guttersnipe? He nearly killed you or did you forget your trip to Tijuana?"
"I nearly killed myself. Ryan had nothing to do with this…"
"But he obvious was the reason and I don't want to lose you through him!" Julie screamed. The way she was talking about his boy made him wanting slapping her face, but he had to maintain composure.
"No, he rescued me. The only one who's killing is you! You're driving me insane with your ideals for life, the way you want me to be. Why don't you get it? I'm not like you and I don't want to be what you want me to be!" Marissa screamed.
"But…but what…do you want I can't give you?" She had tears in her eyes. It was strange. It was obvious she really loved her daughter, but she wasn't able to put it over.
"I want to be me. That's what you can't give me and that's why I want to live with Dad, because he knows who I am and he lets me being me." She was calm again.
"I don't know. I only want all the best for us, but…nobody seems to see or acknowledge it." Julie Cooper turned around. He could hear her sobs even from far away.
"Sorry Sandy for this. I call the state attorney immediately." Caleb said and followed his future wife or not?
"Thanks." He said to Marissa. He was impressed by her way standing up for someone.
"It's a pleasure to me." He went off.
"Mr. Cohen?" He turned around after the half of the way. "I…I know I haven't been the best girlfriend for Ryan…but he's no criminal. He has to come back. Here is his place." She stood there, tears in her eyes.
"Don't worry. I get him out and he'll be back as soon as possible. But may I ask you one question?"
"Sure."
"If you have known all this before, why haven't you warned us and why haven't you tried to help Ryan with Oliver?"
"I…I'm sorry. When I listen to what Caleb told the police officer about someone has been beaten up and so on, I didn't know it was about Ryan and I also didn't know it was about Oliver. Believe me. I…I never had started to hang out with Oliver again, if I had known he was a henchman of Caleb's. Please, you have to believe me this." She sounded despaired. He could imagine how hard her time was now. She not only had to live in the same house as her mother and Caleb. She also had lost her friends due the thing with Oliver – and her great love as well. He for his part was sure, Ryan wasn't going to forgive her that fast – no, he had enough other things on his mind.
"Don't worry. I'm not judging you, for anything. I'm only interested." Now he realized what it meant, when Seth told them he had seen Julie Cooper handing an envelope to Oliver Trask. She probably had paid him for troubling the party this one evening to give Caleb reasons to force his daughter abandoning Ryan. He would have liked to ask Oliver about this, but after the event on the party, he was locked up somewhere in a hospital and only his parents were allowed to see him. On the other hand, he didn't need anymore proof for this. The facts were clear: Julie Cooper hated Ryan, Caleb wanted to merry Julie Cooper and she made Caleb arranging one intrigue after another only to reach her aim. Poor boy. He was nothing but a means to the end in this game, he didn't even participate in.