Chapter 166 - Confronting Richard's Parents (4)

28 January, Municipal Courthouse, City K

Before Lexi could react, Matthew stood up and responded "Madam Yao, this is not the place or the time for this. The Judge will explain the situation, but if you do not remain calm, I will not allow you near my wife or stepson until you can. I will not risk their safety."

"You have no right, you…"

Lexi, regardless of how she felt about Matthew and their marriage was glad that he was sanding up for her and Dominic. Something that Chester and Phillip were the only ones to do in the past. "Do not say that, mother. You forget the law about insulting members of the military."

"No one in their right mind would apply that when he is stopping me from seeing my grandson," was the screamed result.

Suddenly, before anything could be said further, the Judge interrupted "Could everyone please be quiet and sit."

After everyone sat down, the judge continued "I apologise to Mr and Mrs Yao, but I needed to clarify something. Firstly, to be open, and I believe your lawyers may know this, I am a reserve member of the military court bench, and consequently have been given a nominal military rank. While I have not confirmed this, my belief is that when thy staff read in your doc.u.ments that Colonel Rong had married your former daughter-in-law it was assigned to me to prevent delays if the military act in certain ways."

"Well then you should not be involved," spat Madam Yao.

"Madam Yao, and I am giving you latitude not to respect me, but my involvement is to your advantage. If the military opt to force this matter into the military court system I can still sit on the case, and rather than the matter potentially being dragged to the capital it will be dealt with here."

"However, based on the discussion I had with the Colonel and Madam Rong and the Lieutenant before we can progress the matter it will be necessary for not only you Mr and Mrs Yao to have a proper security clearance check, but all civilian lawyers and your staff, court staff and people that you Mr and Mrs Yao will bring Dominic into contact with. There is wider consideration that I cannot explain until these are done. But before you react," With that the judge turned and looked directly at Lexi and Matthew and continued, "Colonel and Madam Rong, you need to ensure that Dominic can spend time at least weekly with his paternal grandparents. He does not need to be cut off from them until the relevant checks are complete."

The Judge paused and looked directly at Lieutenant Li "Lieutenant, please obtain the list of all relevant people from the Yao's, their lawyers and Madam Rong's Lawyers as to the people who need to be security checked. I will have sent to you a list of those court staff who will need to be checked. Lieutenant you have four weeks to commence and complete as many checks as you can, focusing initially on the parties, their legal teams and the court staff. At that time, I need to know how long the balance of the checks will take."

"Yes Major."

"One final warning. The press is not to hear about this case at all. Anything in the media not only will be contempt of this court but will see this matter moved to a military court. Now that is all," responded the judge and who quickly moved off the bench.

Matthew moved to one side to quietly speak to Lieutenant Li about the arrangements for the security screenings to occur. As he moved away, Richard's parents saw this as the opportunity to head over to Lexi.

Watching her formed in-laws, she could see that Richard's father was calm and taking what was happening in his stride. From everything she had seen through her marriage and after Richard's death, in his eyes the only reason she was worth anything to him, was the money and assets her parents gave Richard on their marriage and that he now controlled for Dominic until he turned eighteen. Richard's Will allowed them to use money not required for Dominic for their own needs, and as she supported Dominic that meant they had access to all the money. Keeping her under control was what he needed, as she could demand money that would hamper his lifestyle.

Richard's mother, however, was different. She hated Lexi and wanted Dominic in her custody. Lexi knew that she needed to prevent. The damage she caused with every visit with Dominic was significant, and to be realistic she had no intention of parenting Dominic. All she wanted to do was to cut her out of Dominic's life as she blamed her for Richard's death. In her eyes Richard had never done anything wrong, it was all her fault. Lexi knew that what she likely intended to do was to sent Dominic overseas to the boarding school they sent Richard to when he was seven, barely visiting him or allowing him to come home. She did not want that for Dominic.

Slapping her on the face, Richard's mother spat "You b*tch. You are defying Richard's wishes for his son, and you will lose. You abandoned Dominic when he was a month old and have not been a part of his life. You placed him in the care of your perverted brother, and goodness knows what that exposed him to. You are not a parent; you were just a vessel that gave birth to him. Richard was his father and would have been with him forever."

"Mother…"

"Do not mother me. If you were a proper daughter-in-law, you would have from the outset done what Richard ultimately intended, for his father and I to raise any children he had with you if he was no longer with us. He always knew we would raise his children the right way, and that you could not be trusted. Time has shown that to be the case. How will he ever know right from wrong if he is not with us. You have no idea how to teach him that. Then there is this stunt, to delay the court from making the right decision now. How can Dominic survive with you? As soon as you have more children, he will be pushed to one side. With us that will never happen."

"Do not say that. I love my son…"

"As I did mine, and you caused that accident." With that she slapped Lexi again.

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