As Jace sat in the courtroom in his inmate attire awaiting the beginning of his preliminary hearings, his mind kept running wild. He realized that trying to implicate Sarah in a fraud crime was a very bad idea. Maybe one of the worst ones that he had ever made in his life if not the actual worst. While pondering he saw someone waving their hands trying to gain his attention at the corner of his eye. It was his family members specifically his mom and little sister. He was very thankful and blessed to have his family there supporting him as Sarah's family did not show any care for his welfare at all since the beginning of his arrest and rightfully so. He looked around further observing the other faces in the room mainly checking to see if Sarah would appear with their daughter. After being in prison for a month now, he had missed Ella dearly. He had admitted to himself on many occasions that he had made a huge mistake by trying to get his soon-to-be ex-wife arrested and sent to prison. Making the alimony payments would have been the better choice as Sarah was also very versed at covering her tracks and was able to avoid every legal implication they suspected of her.
There was not enough evidence to prove that she had committed fraud only from the letter that he had presented. Yes, it did come from her email however, it was sent from a computer in the public library which was proven by the investigators who had tracked the IP Address of the computer that was used. Sarah insisted that she carried Ella to the library to start acquainting her with books and pictures and she had used the computers there to send an email but had forgotten to sign out. She suggested that someone must have used her email to send that fake email to Jase as a prank. Additionally, there were no cameras located inside that side of the library as the cameras only guarded the entrance monitoring persons who came in and left. There was also no direct proof that Sarah typed and signed the letter even though it was addressed to her, and it also was electronically signed. Lastly, she had made the most valid point of all which was that the letter was not presented to any organization or business with neither the intent to mislead nor receive financial gain from them thus using the term fraud in her case would have been irrelevant. She didn't even need to render the assistance of a lawyer. She fought and won on her own expense free.
He was stunned when his father spoke to him about her release and gave the details. She didn't even spend any time at all in prison. The investigation simply resulted in no legal action due to lack of substantial evidence. All this time that he was in prison, Sarah was home in their family house spending time with Ella and from what he believed, advertising her body online for money in her online business as usual. He grimaced at the thought of it. As if things couldn't have gotten any worse, she had her lawyer scrap all of the previous marriage agreements as she no longer agreed to receiving 1/2 of everything. She now wanted it all claiming that he was a dangerous, thieving criminal. She also started filing for sole custody of Ella. She was trying to use the fact of him being held in prison against him to take away everything including his little baby girl.
So, not only did he not succeed at getting out of his alimony payments, but he also now had a valid criminal case being carried on against him that could make him loose everything if the case were to proceed to trial. His true intentions backfired and instead of setting Sarah up he only did it to himself. He closed his eyes in agony at the thought and at that same time the judge entered into the courtroom.
"All rise."
The bailiff instructed this of all present as the judge became seated and indicated to everyone via hand gestures that they could have proceeded to do the same. Jase hadn't thought that the case would have been accepted to go to trial. He knew that he had covered his tracks all too well to even get caught. He didn't participate in the embezzlement directly so there was no clear evidence that could have been associated with him concerning this. His family also hired a panel of the best lawyers in their city to fight his case so they were all almost certain that the prosecution would be denied the progressing of this case to trial. Even though he knew all of this to be true, he also knew that he was behind on time. Sarah always somehow happened to be a few steps ahead of him and the longer this had extended, the more leverage she would have gotten on him concerning the divorce and child custody.
He was lost in his thoughts wondering how he was financially going to be able to afford the future legal fees for his divorce as now he had been suspended from work pending the results of the case and unlike Sarah, had no other means of income. He was financially broken and needed extra income to be able to fund his life when it had returned to being a free man. As Jase continued to ponder, being totally unconcerned with the current situation that was playing out in his presence, he heard the gavel of the judge hit loudly and unknowingly realized that it was all over. He only noticed from the wide smiles on his lawyer's faces and the cheering from his family that he had won, and the case was declined to proceed to trial.
It was a Saturday, and it was Jase's first day on his second job as a driver for a moving company that was located twenty minutes away from the hotel where he was staying. The name of the company was MovingU and the extra salary was really helping him to be able to fund the legal fees for his divorce. He was also successful in retrieving his job at Finance Inc. International as all the charges against him were dropped. The ex-CFO, however, was not that lucky. He was found guilty and received twenty-seven years in prison. This was a bitter pill for Jase to swallow knowing very well that if he had not tried to set Sarah up that his ex-coworker would have still been a free man just as he was. It had also been a struggle for him to receive visitation sessions with Ella as Sarah was bent on making everything for him a living hell. He knew that he somewhat deserved it however, he thought that she was being extremely unnecessary in some cases.
"Jase Abraham, I hope that you are ready for a long drive today. A six-hour ride from here to Edinburgh in Scotland followed by an eight-hour ride from there to Lewes, across border lines. Customer's name is Tricia Melbourne. What do you think about that?"
Jase's new co-worker asked him this question rather jolly. He didn't have an answer for him as he simply saw it as a job and nothing more. It wasn't interesting to him one bit. As they arrived six hours and fifteen minutes later in Edinburgh, Jase and the two movers that accompanied him were a bit exhausted and hungry. Very sleepy even. They pulled up in front of the apartment no. twelve as seen on the form and there was a woman standing in front of the door looking curiously at the truck. It was Tricia. Jase sat in the van still as if he were frozen. He watched on as Tricia started walking to the van to speak with them. She was a beauty from head to toe. She was five feet five inches tall and had very black, curly hair that was reaching to her mid back. He was wondering why he started to sweat so much all of a sudden. His palms felt as if they were dissolving. The emotions were intense, like none he had ever felt before not even for Sarah. Tricia was light brown in complexion and clearly mixed in race. She smiled at him, and he felt as if his heart had melted. That was the moment Jase Abraham thought to himself,
"I've just fallen in love."