Read Online Times and Seasons by Beverly LaHaye - Free Book Online Page B

judge looked up as if he couldn’t believe someone had dared speak out of turn in his courtroom.
    “I won’t do it again,” Mark said. “I swear. You can ask my mom. She’ll probably ground me from now till Christmas.”
    Cathy closed her eyes. She knew he was making himself look more naive and clueless, as if he still didn’t understand that months of his life behind bars was not the same as being grounded in his bedroom. Annie squeezed her hand, and she clung to it, trembling. The judge took a deep breath, as if the very thought of what was about to happen pained even him. He leaned forward, pressing his elbows into his leather inlaid desk.
    “Young man, what you did was a very serious offense. And you may have heard that in my courtroom people don’t get off the hook. Not guilty people.”
    Mark looked over his shoulder at Cathy again, and she let go of Steve’s and Annie’s hands and slowly brought hers to her mouth. A feeling of terror rose up inside her.
    “I’m going to sentence you to a year at River Ranch Juvenile Correctional Facility.”
    Mark swung around, his mouth open, and looked at his mother. She got to her feet and looked across to Jerry. He looked as stricken as they did.
    “ No! ” Mark shouted. “ You can’t. ”
    The judge banged his gavel and ordered Mark to be quiet.
    “Your Honor,” Cathy shouted. “ Please! ”
    “I will have order in my courtroom!” the judge insisted, banging the gavel again. The bailiff came to take Mark out of the room. He turned back with tears on his face, waiting for someone to run to his rescue.
    When no one could, he cried, “Mom!” as if she had let him down. “Dad!”
    Cathy had never felt more inadequate in her life. Jerry was standing now and looked as helpless as she.
    Steve got to his feet and pulled Cathy against him, and she felt as if the world were going black. It all became shaky as he helped her out of the row of spectators and led her out of the courtroom.

C HAPTER
Thirteen
    Cathy fought her way down the hall and to the door where they had led Mark out. Annie, Rick, and Steve ran to keep up with her. She tried to catch Mark, but they had already gotten him into the processing room.
    “I want to see my son!” she yelled to the bailiff who was coming back to the courtroom.
    “You can’t see him right now, ma’am. I’m sorry, but he’s being processed.”
    “He is my son!” she shouted. “You can’t keep him from me!”
    “He’s not yours right now, Mrs. Flaherty. He’s a ward of the state.”
    “How dare you!” she shouted. “You can’t keep me from talking to him!”
    “You can talk to him later, but right now there are things that have to be taken care of.”
    She started to lash out at the bailiff, who could have picked her up and snapped her in two, but Steve stopped her.
    “Calm down, Cathy,” he whispered. “This man’s just doing his job.”
    “Well, his job stinks!” she said. “They can’t take a child away from his own mother.”
    “Of course they can,” he said. “They do it all the time.”
    She turned on Steve, as if he had declared the verdict himself. “Not to me , they don’t!”
    She saw Jerry coming up the hall and jerked out of Steve’s hands. All the rage that had built over the last twenty-four hours tornadoed toward the man who had fathered these children, then left her to raise them on her own.
    “ You! ” she shouted as he came toward her. “This is your fault! You did this to us!”
    “Did what?” Jerry asked. “Mark did this to himself.”
    “He needed a father!” she screamed. “He needed somebody he could count on. He needed a man to show him how to be a man. Do you even know how, Jerry? Do you even know what that means?”
    “Quiet, Cathy. You’re making a scene,” Jerry spat out. “I don’t have to listen to you talk to me that way.”
    “No, you never have to listen, do you?” she shouted. “All you have to do is walk out, just disappear, and nobody will hold