You could ask me how did I get here but it would take a long time for me to recount the tale of my journey.  So you say that you want to know and that you will take the time to hear me out but let me warn you it is not a pretty picture and sometimes I don’t always do what is right.  Hard to believe I know but it is true.

My parents raised me to know the difference between right and wrong. I obeyed, I followed orders, I worked hard, I excelled.  But in all of that something was missing and I didn’t realize what it was until years later, much later.

My educational and work life progressed as planned.  Here enters the high priced and brilliant attorney, physically striking with a good singing voice.  Accepted a high profile case in a small town.  Blew into town won the case and clients fell over themselves trying to hire me.

Things started well.  Then it took a turn.  Good girl itching for a little excitement takes up with the town’s gangster wannabe, RJ Gannon.  He had looks and charms and we both appreciated the finer things in life, good food, good wine, good art, you know, the finer things.  We did well for a while then he grew a bit possessive wanting to know how I filled every moment of my day.  That would not work and then things took another turn.  Good girl was ‘bad girl’ one night and that capped the end to the RJ Gannon story.

That one night of ‘bad girl’ drama turned into a year of lust and love.  It grew into love for me but just continued lust for him.  I fell in love with him but he professed his love to another. I exited with my broken heart and carried on my way.  Not only did I leave with a broken heart but bruises from a physical attack at a train station simply because someone saw me with my ‘boyfriend’ and objected to our being together.  Even after I left him behind someone else decided to punish my ex-boyfriend by kidnapping me, tying me to a stake and setting a fire at my feet.  He rushed in and rescued me but only after he first rescued another.  Add to that in an effort to give him information about his dead father’s case, I waited around too long and was caught in a tornado and was blinded by shattered glass.

It could have stopped there but your girl went from bad to worse. Why in the world did I ever take up with Christian Vega, the broke and unemployed artist/boxer wannabe? He brought nothing to the table. Yes I know he helped me and stood by me while I was blind. He said the words ‘I love you’ and I guess I fell in love with the words and mistook it for falling in love with him.  He too was possessive and borderline abusive.  That relationship ended as well.  Soon after someone gassed his studio with four of us in it. I was the only one who didn’t quickly recover but I did recover.

Believe it or not I recovered and rebounded.  Three years have passed and once again I am the brilliant attorney but no longer working for the defense or prosecution. Say hello to the Honorable Judge Evangeline Williamson.  Yes, things finally have improved for the ‘good girl gone bad’ now ‘good girl’ again.  I also found love again along the way.  Still in Llanview but living in the suburbs in my house with the picket fence and my husband of two years.  Sitting here at the table in the breakfast nook cutting up carrots for the tossed salad that we will have with dinner.  He’s cooking spaghetti and meatballs, his favorite and mine. I would sit at the counter on the island but the stools are too high and my eight-month pregnant belly doesn’t shift so well these days.  Wait he asked me something and I didn’t hear him or respond because I’m daydreaming again.

“What did you say honey?  I didn’t hear you. I was daydreaming again.”

“You do that a lot lately.  You don’t do that in court do you?”

“No, I don’t do it in court.  I’m home now I can relax right?”

“Yes you can. I asked what did you want to drink, lemonade or iced tea?”

“Lemonade, please thank you”

He took the carrots that I had cut up and added them to the salad. He put the entrée and the salad and the lemonade on the table and sat down.  We blessed the food and starting eating.

“What will we have for dessert and don’t say me?  You can see by my big belly that you have had enough of me for dessert.”

“No we will have sherbet the kind that you like.  Is that alright?”

“That’s perfect.  You take such good care of me.”

“Of course, you’re all I ever wanted.  I love you.”

I smiled.  We have come a long way to this point to have this ease in our relationship. Here we sit.  Who would ever have believed that we would end up together?  I’m the Judge and he the Chief of Police.  We make it work.  We’ve both changed but, for the better.  Evidently I gave up my resistance to marriage and he worked his way through the many chains that bound him in his misery.  He’s no longer the man who only has for dinner, ‘coffee with cream and sugar’.  He even gave up drinking beer while I’m pregnant.  He said if I can’t imbibe in ‘adult beverages’ then he would not.  We finished dinner, he cleaned the kitchen, and we showered and prepared for bed.

Now our nightly routine consists of me lying on my side with him behind me touching my belly.  He starts to read to the babies.  Yes, we’re having twins a girl and a boy.  When he starts reading they start moving because they hear their daddy and as he continues to read they calm down.  By the end of the story they are still. I guess they fell asleep. He rolls over to put the book on the nightstand and to turn out the light.  He then rolls back over and kisses me and says, “I love you Evangeline”and I reply, “I love you John”.