"All rise."

The court had commenced, and my mom and I stated our reasonings for coming to court. My mom started with the evidence. "As you can see in this video," my mother said. "Jericho had slapped me."

The edited video depicted Jericho slapping my mother for no reason.

The judge raised an eyebrow. "Mr. Belford, do you have a reason for this? Because this is assault."

Jericho stood up. "Yes, I do, your honor," Jericho cleared his throat. "She was hitting me with a pan for absolutely no reason; I defended myself by slapping her."

"Objection, your honor." My mother stood up. "I have a witness if I could...?"

"Yes, bring your witness, Mrs. Belford." The judge approved.

A'raya stood up and went to the stand; she took a deep breath as the judge turned to her. "Do you have a recount of what happened, young lady?"

"Yes, I do." She answered confidently. I could see my mother smirk, but she was not winning today.

"Please do, Ms. Belford."

A'raya nodded. "I was seven years old, but I could remember I was angry and sad. Jericho had said that he was moving out, and I wanted him to stay, but mom, she took it to another level. She was shouting and saying that Jericho couldn't do anything himself, and she grabbed a pan and hit him; she kept hitting him, trapping him in a corner, and then he slapped her and ran to his room. He grabbed his suitcase, and A'roya helped him escape through his window. I saw it all."

My mother's eyes widened.

"Is this true, Mrs. Belford?"

"N–no! I have no idea where this is coming from."

I scoffed. "Objection."

"Speak, Ms. Belford."

I nodded. "I was also there, and as A'raya said, our mother wants full control of us, and so she was angry that Jericho wanted to move, and the next week, Jericho's small apartment was bombarded with–I don't know, police, army men, people who forcefully took into the army. Mom told them he was a troubled child and was forced to spend two years in the navy."

"Yes, I was told I was doing community service and repeatedly berated for not respecting the woman who gave birth to me," Jericho added.

"Huh...." The judge spoke, going through the papers. "Ms. and Mr. Belford, your mother has sent proof of you beating your younger siblings."

"Your honor, if I may?" A'raya spoke up again.

"Go ahead."

"In our last court battle, my siblings and I testified against them because we were forced to. They were beaten by my mother and then forced to lie about it."

"Alright, let's bring the young girl and boy in."

Lucky and White walked up to the stand A'raya took a seat.

"Speak, young man."

"Um, my twin, King, had called A'roya to warn her that mom was putting a restraining order on them using A'raya's phone. She found out, and I took the blame, so my mom beat me bloody. White told mom that she didn't want to do this and that she wanted to live with A'roya or Jericho."

"Is this true, King?"

King stood up, watching his mother glare at him. "Y–yes, I told A'roya to watch out, but I didn't know mom had trackers on our phone."

"Objection! These children are brainwashed! Jericho and A'roya have been breaching the restraining order, going to my ex-husband's house to see them."

My heart jumped out of my chest as the judge raised her eyebrows.

"Because we missed them!" White yelled. "You keep them away from us because A'roya divorced her husband! He was hurting her like you hurt us, and you forced us to lie and get them in trouble!" White sobbed.

"Jeremiah, please take this young girl to calm down." The judge said softly.

"Your honor, if I may speak–"

"No, I think I've seen enough, Mrs. Belford."

"You're honor, to solidify this, as I should say," Jericho started. "I have a video that might as well put her in jail for distress and attempted murder."

"Please show us this." The judge said.

The lights went dim, and the video started playing; I couldn't watch this again, watch my mom beat a child–her child to the brink of fucking death, to the point where Switzerland was where he had to go to get treated and escape from her.

I held my stomach, tears rushing down. I could never, would never treat my son like that. It put absolute fear in me; I was bringing a child. God, kill me if I ever even had a similar trait to my mother.

Vincent squeezed my hand. "You're gonna be a great mother." He whispered in my ear.

I nodded. I almost forgot I brought him as support. "You aren't mad yet."

"Not when your mom's going to prison after this video." He replied.

The video ended with the judge's mouth opened. "Attempted murder? Where is this child?"

"That child is our older brother, your honor; as you can see, A'roya and I are in the corner as she's doing this, our father comes back and takes him to the hospital, but they sent him to Switzerland because they had better equipment for his head."

"His frontal lobe was removed, your honor, resulting in his fear and social etiquette also being removed. Our father was the one who protected us from our mother; if he told the police, our mother would have him deported, and at that point, all of us would be dead or severely injured and disabled."

"Where is your dad from?" The judge asked.

"They are lying–"

"Hush, Mrs. Belford, continue."

"Our dad is a Senegalese man. His real name is Bol Deng; mom had him change his name to Jackson Belford. The whole time, we thought he was New Orleans, but that was a lie. Right now, he's out of state; he's a truck driver."

"The injuries resulted in his left eye being completely useless. He's here now, but I doubt he'd be respectful."

"Bring him in, please."

Mom's chest rose and fell as Atlas walked in; her son she hadn't seen in twenty years, the son she thought was dead, was now here and here to prove how much of an evil person she was and still is.

Atlas' eyes stayed on mom as he stood on the stand.

"Can you tell us what you remember?"

Atlas scoffed. "I remember a lot, judge; this bitch I would call my mother cost me my left eye and part of my brain."

"Mr. Atlas, please refrain from disrespecting women in here."

"I couldn't give a single a fuck; this person isn't a woman; a real woman wouldn't do what she did to me, her own child that she spent hours of labor pushing out."

The judge nodded. "I'm gonna let this time slide. I have heard of your condition, but please tell us why this was even a video."

"Yes, judge, I will. I was fifteen years old, and I was being bullied by two boys in my grade; I had told this bitch, and she said I deserved it. My dad went to the school to talk to the principal, and my mom told him if he did that again, she would deport him back to wherever he came from. I took matters into my own hands and got into a fight which led to my suspension. I got two days because I was defending myself, but this," Atlas referred to mom as an object. "This thing was furious, she kept hitting me, and she got more creative as she went on, using my trophy to knock me out."

"What do you remember after."

"I remember waking up, my dad cried happy tears; he said that I would never see my mother again and that everything was gonna get better. In the following days, I noticed nothing scared me anymore, horror movies, people who usually intimidated me, and nightmares....I had no more nightmares, and it never crossed my mind what people thought about me and did outlandish things."

The judge nodded. "Thank you, Mr. Atlas. I would be quite pissed off as well, Mrs. Belford, your own son?"

Mom shook her head. "No, your honor–"

The judge rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Alright, stop it; this is ridiculous. We all know that you are guilty." The judge stopped my mother right there.

"I'm not wasting any more time, attempted murder and child abuse...... I'm giving you the maximum amount of fifty years in prison without the possibility of parole. Take her away."

"No! No! Let go of me, fools!" My mother screeched as the guards pulled her away. "I wish I never had any of you! Your dad could kill himself, that African dumbass!"

Her voice fades away as they pull her away.

"Also, tell your dad to be here by next month; he will not be served the minimum or maxim sentence, but he'll be in jail for a minimum of thirty days for not reporting this, and I'll make sure he gets his job back. Court adjourned."

Oh, my god, we won. We fucking won.