Who are you Lucy Chen?

Part twenty seven; questioning

"Are you still in custody of your brother?" Dougherty asked and Lucy fell silent, wondering if his question was a joke or not "Sir, I'm a grown ass woman I am not in 'custody' of anyone, it has been a few years since I was in custody of my brother?" Lucy replied and Keith smiled as Dougherty just took notes.

"Why did you move back to California when you were 20 even though you loved Russia so much?" Dougherty added up "Well, I want to give my daughter a better childhood than I had and that wasn't going to happen in Russia" Lucy replied "So you are living alone, as a single mother?" Dougherty asked "I was living like that but I recently got a roommate and he is very helpful with my daughter" Lucy replied.

"So you are in a relationship?" he asked and Lucy shook her head as Jackson grinned "No sir, he is just my roommate" Lucy replied and he looked up "You are saying that you live in the same apartment with a male and you are not in a relationship?" He asked and Lucy sighed a bit offended. "Yes sir, not that it is relevant but he is not attracted to women and I am not attracted to Americans so we make a great team," Lucy replied, her voice steady.

Tim, caught off guard, almost choked on his water while Jackson and Nolan grinned. Judge Dougherty, raising an eyebrow, decided to steer the conversation back on track. "Alright then, let's take a look at previous convictions or cases," he said, his tone neutral as he turned to his notes. "When you were 17 years old, you were sued for $6,547, am I correct?" Lucy nodded, her expression stern as she flipped her straightened black hair over her shoulder.

"Yes, your Honor." Dougherty continued, "You won the case, and a month after that, the plaintiff was charged with sexual assault and spent almost two years in jail?" "Correct, your Honor," Lucy replied, her voice unwavering as Thomas kind of grinned. Judge Dougherty's eyes narrowed as he took notes. "Can you explain the circumstances surrounding that lawsuit and subsequent conviction?" he asked, his gaze fixed on Lucy.

Lucy took a deep breath. "Of course, your Honor. The plaintiff was a very good friend of mine. We were going home from a bar," she began. "My boyfriend at the time took half of our friend group home as we both didn't drink, and I was taking the other half home." "How long would you say you've been sober for?" Dougherty asked and Lucy thought "About 5 years, I never drank much before but when I got pregnant I completely stopped and never picked it up" Lucy replied "How many people were with you? Male, female, age?".

Dougherty asked. "About ten people. I was the only female, and everyone was above the age of 18 except me and one other guy" Lucy replied. Dougherty smirked. "And they let the female drive? Brave choice." Lucy looked annoyed, clenching her fists against the stand. "Alright, I'm going to ignore that. My boyfriend had already driven off, and everyone entered the car. One of my friends got a little handsy, so I pushed him off and told him to get his ass in the car," she added.

"He didn't listen, kept touching me, and he picked me up, set me on the hood of the car, which I did not appreciate," Lucy continued, her jaw clenched. "So I pushed him off of me and punched him in the face, one time. He was knocked out, and I left with the rest of my friends." The judge frowned.

"As a 17-year-old girl, you knocked a full-grown man out?" he asked incredulously with a slight smile. Lucy sighed. "Yes, your Honor, as a 17-year-old woman, I knocked a 19-year-old male out," she replied firmly. Judge Dougherty raised an eyebrow "Alright, so what happened then?" he asked "Well, a few days later a letter came in my mail that I was sued for $6,547 because of surgeries he had to take because of my punch" Lucy added and Dougherty looked up "What surgery's?" he asked and Lucy thought.

"A broken jaw, a nose broken in two places, and four new front teeth" Lucy added and Dougherty looked at her with a straight face "And after that you decided to drag his ass to court?" he asked and Lucy frowned, offended. "Just returning the favour sir, you can't try to screw me over after you just assaulted me" Lucy replied and he stared at her for a bit before writing things down.