The lawyer sauntered up to Arthur.

"Mr. Kirkland, I would like you to tell us what has happened and how you obtained these children."

"Are you sure you want to hear my story?!" Arthur challenged. "Because if you are, neither of us are going to like it!"

"I'll take my chances."

"Fine!" Arthur took a breath to calm down. "Several years ago I met a woman and fell deeply in love with her. Her name was Alice Walker and within months we were engaged. On October 11th we were married and our first son Alfred was born on July 4th; he was a few weeks early. Things were going well and two years later she was pregnant again; our second son Peter was born on September 2nd. Everything kept going well until our home burned down on April 7th, apparently killing Alice. A neighbor of ours told us that my sons were at her home. Francis, who was at the time only a work acquaintance of mine, offered to give me a ride to pick them up. We had nowhere to go so he offered to let us stay with him. I slipped into shock from losing my wife and Francis helped me recover while taking care of my sons and his own son Matthew who was only four years old. As he took care of me, I started falling in love with him but then Matthew had to be rushed to the hospital because he fell and they all went, leaving me to wait for a friend of his named Antonio to come and watch me. Before he could get to Francis's home, my wife turned up and demanded that we talk. Instead of talking, she really tried to kill me and told me how she had never loved me and had faked her death. Antonio came in and she ran off, letting him find my unconscious body."

"When Antonio saw my body he fainted while on the phone with Francis. Francis also fainted, scaring Alfred and Peter. They started yelling and a nurse came in to shush them. When she noticed Francis she called for a doctor and they learned about Antonio at his home. Paramedics came to the house and found the two of us. Antonio was taken to a hospital room and since I seemed dead I was taken to the morgue. I woke up about a week later and in that time Francis had been committed to the psychiatric ward and my boys had been taken away. Francis had been ranting about how I would come back to life so he was checked in for testing. Matthew was still in the hospital but when he was to be released Antonio would take him since he's his godfather. My boys wanted to go with Antonio too but they weren't allowed so my brother Iain was called to take them. My brother hates children and he took them very grudgingly where they stayed for a few days before Antonio and Lovino took them back. They were brought back to their home in Spain and left with Lovino while Antonio went to a meeting."

"The doctor who had been diagnosing Francis's mental health had turned out to be a fraud and he was released, taking Matthew and I with him. That night that man broke into Antonio and Lovino's home and attacked Lovino. Peter, who had woken up due to the noise, came out to where they were and the man tried to shoot him. Lovino pushed the man so his shot went through his shoulder rather than his head. Distracting the man, Lovino ran with Peter into the room Alfred was sleeping in and hid them both quickly before the man forced his way in and repeatedly shot Lovino. Trying to find Peter, the man ran out of the house. When Antonio came home he found Alfred, Peter, and Lovino and laid them on the bed before showing Alfred what was at the end of his tunnel. That's where Francis and I found them. We had Antonio take Alfred back to the others and take care of them. While we talking, my wife came back and threatened us. Alfred came back to ask us a question and she was very upset to see him. She advanced on him so I ran over and picked him up before she could get to him. Angry, she pointed a gun at him and as she shot, Francis pushed us out of the way and she shot him instead. I grappled with her and sent Alfred back to get Antonio. He quickly restrained her and we removed her from our lives."

Arthur took a deep breath and leaned back in the chair.

"And all of that happened in less than a year. Can I take a break before working on the rest of the story? We still have several years to go through."

The judge nodded.

"I call a fifteen minute recess. We will reconvene after that time is up."

AN: ARGH! That took forever to write! And to make it make sense...? Yeah...difficult.

But I summed up all of the first story in 721 words. Exhausting. I packed WAAAY too much drama into that story. Totally worth it though. The first paragraph is only through chapter 6 by the way. The second one is through chapter 13. And of course the last one is through the end. When I write the second part it will be a lot less specific and should be shorter since I can skip over a lot of the kidnapping part. That should be easier.

Well, see ya then! :D