Rose’s First Case

One week later, it was finally the day they had been waiting for since years. The day Rose would fight her first court case as a lawyer. Andrew seemed to be more excited than her. He woke up earlier than his alarm and lay in bed thinking of his love fighting a case for justice. “I can’t wait anymore. This will be the first step of her career and I’ll be there to witness it” he thought excitedly. The thought sent shivers down his spine and there were butterflies in his stomach. He got up, got dressed for the day and went down for breakfast. 

Everyone noticed the glow on his face and his smile which was not stopping at all. He went downstairs for breakfast. James, his father asked “what’s up with you since the last few days? Are you fine?” 

“Dad, what are you saying? Look, I'm completely fine.” 

James looked at his son a little intently and thought “Son, I’m your father. I know if there is even something minutely wrong with you. I’ll just wait and see how long you’ll hide it from me.” He finished his breakfast and rushed to the court where Rose was waiting for him. 

She was pacing around and stopped when he called her. He hugged her and said "I'm so excited Rose. I can't wait to see you. You're going to do great. I’m sure you will." His words had the effect of a triple chocolate Belgian cookie taken straight out of the oven for Rose. 

She visibly calmed down and smiled. “Thank you for believing in me Andy.”

“Anytime Rose.”

"I honestly don't mind losing. I just don't want to let my client down. She has gone through a lot in her life and I want to help her out of it. I hope I can."

"Hey, don't worry. You'll do just fine. I'm sure you will be able to do everything you want to."

Soon it was time for the hearing to begin. The opposition lawyer was a man named Arthur Simpson. He was a misogynistic, narrow minded person who believed women can never be equal to men. When Rose stepped inside the room and went to the desk he followed her and said "hi. I heard you are fresh off the boat." 

"Sorry?" asked a confused Rose. 

"I mean that you're new right?" 

"Oh yes, I am. This is my first case." 

He smirked before continuing "well I must tell you. You chose to fight the wrong case. Watch me win this. Anyway it's good to lose sometimes, especially to a man who’s much better than you. At least you can see and try to learn how to win. That's the least a woman can do as they will never be able to defeat a man. After losing to me today you may change your mind and decide to get married to some guy and have his children. That is a woman's job." 

Rose's blood started boiling as she hated these kinds of people in general. She fisted her hands and tried to control her anger. She took a deep breath and said "we'll see." The judge walked in and everyone stood up. 

Both the clients were called to the stand. Roshni's client was a 27 year old lady, Niamh Murphy and Athur’s client was Niamh’s husband, Sam Cooper. The judge instructed for the trial to begin. 

Before starting Rose looked at Andrew and he showed her a thumbs up sign. Rose began "your honour, my client Niamh Murphy wants a divorce from her abusive husband Sam Cooper. He is an abusive, manipulative man who has sexually abused her by raping her several times and has threatened to kill her if she told anyone. He has also cheated on her with several other women.” 

"Objection your honour. How can a husband rape his own wife. A husband has rights over his wife. After marriage, the husband can do whatever he pleases and the wife should not object to it. About cheating then, if a husband is not getting what he deserves he will obviously go find it somewhere else."

Rose interrupted him in the middle. "Your honour, please forgive my opposition lawyer for his lack of knowledge." Turning to Arthur, she said "Mr. Simpson if you don't already know, according to the Oxford dictionary, the definition of rape is "the crime of forcing somebody to have sex when they do not want it or are not able to agree to it." There are no conditions in the middle stating it's not rape if the person is her husband. Rape is rape and there is no difference if it's a random man doing it to a woman or a husband doing it to his wife. If someone says no, it means no. Coming to infidelity, if he wants something else then he should leave my client and give her a divorce before going after other women." 

Arthur lowered his head in shame and on the other hand Andrew felt his chest bursting with pride as he looked at her arguing for justice. 

After a while it was time for the jury to announce their decision regarding the case. They found Sam guilty and the judge announced "I announce Mrs Niamh Murphy and Mr. Sam Cooper are divorced and the court sentences Mr. Sam Cooper to three years in jail for sexually assaulting his wife. The court is adjourned." 

Rose felt like she was on top of the world. She had just won the first case she had ever fought. Andrew ran to her and hugged her after everyone was gone. "You did it, Rose." 

She smiled and said "we did it. Thank you for giving me the confidence to do this. If not for you, I don’t think I’d have had the courage to stand up here. Thank you so much Andy." 

They continued hugging each other unknown to the fact that someone was watching them in anger vowing to take revenge for his well deserved loss.