Jailyn~
"She meant nothing to me," Nick says as he takes the stand, "I never once laid a hand on her. I genuinely have no idea why she's still stuck on me when we broke up almost eight years ago. Jailyn seems like she's got everything anyone would want. It's absolutely insane to me that she's still continuing to drive this narrative that I'm someone I'm not. I know I made some mistakes with her. She's been doing this since we broke up." I can't help but shake my head a little as he sits on the stand under oath lying to everyone here.
Michael nods before asking, "So did you or did you not force yourself on her when she had mono?"
"I'm sorry that she thinks that I did, however, I'd never take advantage of anyone like that." I scoff as he says it rolling my eyes. Fucking lying through his teeth. "I don't remember her ever telling me, no, and if she did I would've stopped."
"How often would you say the two of you would fight?"
Nick shakes his head a little, "It was more bickering than anything and never physical. We'd both threaten to break up with each other all the time and one of us would say something toxic that the other would jump on to get back together with each other."
"Did you ever physically restrain her from leaving?" Michael asks.
"I might have stopped her so we could talk things out, but I never physically restrained her no. If she'd have wanted to leave she was able to," Nick responds, he's got a small smile on his face. The cockiness is honestly disgusting just how it radiates off of him. He thinks he's untouchable. "She's lied to the public before what's stopping her from doing it now?"
Pushing my tongue to my cheek keeping my mouth shut as this dude continues to try and pull my name through the dirt. "Nick, do you recall ever threatening to harm yourself at any point when she was trying to leave you?"
"No sir, that's something you don't joke about." I can't contain my eye roll, he didn't even joke about it. He was trying to convince me he would.
"Why do you believe Jailyn would be standing trial here today if that didn't happen?"
Nick shakes his head and glances in my direction, for the first time we make eye contact as he says, "I couldn't tell you. She's been obsessed with me since we'd met. Maybe she thinks that now that I'm being accused of killing my girlfriend she'll be able to get people to believe her. I genuinely don't know why she's still stuck on a relationship eight years almost later while she's married even at that."
"Is there anything else you'd like to say here, Nick?"
Nick nods, "I guess I just want to apologize, I know that I wasn't always perfect in our relationship but neither was she. I made mistakes and I regret them and I've learned from them. I was nineteen years old at the time, I didn't really have anything figured out. So all I'd really like to say I guess is that I'm sorry that you feel that I did all of those things even though I never did." The corners of his mouth twitch up slightly before he catches himself. This fucking kid. Shaking my head I glance up at Christian who looks visibly pissed off.
"No further questions your honor," Michael says walking back to his table seemingly satisfied with Nick's responses. Jessica stands up as she's directed and makes her way up to the stand to begin her cross-examination.
"Mr.Kelley, you're aware that it is a crime to lie under oath correct?" Jessica asks immediately. I love that woman. Nick furrows his eyebrows a second before nodding. "Are you aware that we have evidence of you on more than one occasion either threatening to commit suicide or implying that's what you would do should Jailyn have broken up with you? There are multiple occasions documented in text," Jessica says heading back towards her stuff and pulling out some papers shifting through them before pulling several sheets out. "Because I have those right here." Jessica hands the documents to him to look at. He looks at them a moment before handing them back so she can present it to the jury. "If it were only one instance, I may have given you the benefit of the doubt that you'd just forgotten about it. However, it's more than one instance on multiple days. Almost seems like that was your go-to when Jailyn was about to break up with you."
"It was almost eight years ago."
"That may be the case, however, given how active you were on social media about Jailyn after she was announced as a member of Team USA and made her debut. I find it incredibly hard to believe that you forgot about the relationship."
"I've never said I forgot about it," Nick says, "However it'd be impossible to remember everything that actually happened. It was almost a decade ago."
Jessica shakes her head slightly, "What exactly does Jailyn have to gain from this? She's obviously incredibly well known and very successful in her career and in a healthy happy relationship. What exactly does she have to gain being here today?"
"As I'd said, I don't know. What has she ever had to gain from trying to spin this narrative that I'm a shitty person. She's been on this ever since we'd broken up, it's never made any sense to me," Nick responds nodding a little.
"What do you think about where Jailyn is in life right now? She's obviously incredibly successful and got some high profile people in her life. If I'm not mistaken you are a fan of the Browns. She had their quarterback in her wedding, that change anything for you?" I have to stop myself from laughing knowing she's trying to trap him again. I freaking love Jessica.
Nick shifts a little uncomfortably, he's gotta know she's got something on him right now. "I can't deny that she's successful, that speaks for itself. I don't think she deserves to be in the position she is given where we are right now. She's trying to ruin my life here for no real reason. Obviously, she's got a great reputation but that's because she's just been able to manipulate everyone to be on her side. As for the Browns thing, why should I care? Jailyn and Christian are both incredibly successful athletes and through that, I'm sure you get to interact with and know plenty of other successful athletes."
"So you have nothing to say about that?" Jessica asks seriously as she heads back to grab something out of her folder. "Because I have posts gathered from your personal twitter account and from both of your private Instagram accounts saying differently." She looks at a few sheets of paper picking out the ones she needs right now. "August 19, 2024, you tweeted out. 'Jailyn James would be married to a dude like Yelich and yet still manage to continue looking like a complete slut getting disgustingly drunk publicly like that. I'd put money that she went home with another dude.'" The fucking audacity this kid has, that was literally the day after we won the world championship. Christian was literally fucking there that night. "February 17, 2024, you screenshotted Baker Mayfield's Instagram story of him Jailyn and Christian at their reception and posted it to your Instagram and captioned it; 'How big of a whore do you have to be to have a see-through skirt on your wedding dress? Sucks to see a dude like Bake hanging out with trash like her.'" I bite down on my cheek as I glare up at the stand, it's getting really fucking hard to bite my tongue here. "I've got plenty more where those are from as well but I believe I've made my point with those two. For someone, you claim meant nothing to you, you seem to have her name in your mouth an awful lot."
Nick doesn't say anything for a second before replying, "It's hard not to when she is everywhere. When we were together she wasn't anything, she didn't even want to be anything. Now all a sudden she's this superstar athlete that everyone adores. She's got everything I ever dreamed of having and doesn't deserve any of it." I just shake my head rolling my eyes, and there it is.
"I've got no further questions, your honor," Jessica says, "This hasn't been discussed however I'd like to call Christian Yelich to the stand." I furrow my eyebrows a little, why? Christian looks just as confused.
"On what grounds Mrs.Hale?"
"As a character witness for Jailyn. The defense has seemed to want to spin the narrative on Mrs.James-Yelich." Jessica says. A lot of eyes are on Christian and me right now.
"Mr.Clark any objection?" The judge asks.
"No your honor," Michael responds.
The judge nods before waving Christian up, "The prosecution calls Christian Yelich up to the stand." Christian stands and moves out past me giving my hand a small squeeze before he lets go and makes his way up to the stand.
Christian takes his oath before taking his seat for Jessica to start her questioning. "Remind everyone again when you met Jailyn for me please."
Christian smiles a little at me and nods, "June 2019."
"And when did you two begin actually dating?" Jessica asks pacing a little keeping it as casual as possible.
"We dated late October early November 2020 until December 2020. Then we started dating again in September 2021 and have been together ever since."
Jessica nods, "And how would you describe your relationship with Jailyn?"
Christian tips his head to the side a little, "It's fun and easy. We keep each other grounded yet still can pop off a little with each other. I've always said that she helps me to be better in every way just by how incredible she is." I smile a little and look down at my lap slightly, he really is the best.
"How would you say she helps you to be better?"
Christian nods, "Obviously she's the most incredible athlete out there right now. Having her around makes me want to be better myself and push myself harder. Especially since I know she's better than me." His small laugh making me smile even more. "She's also the most compassionate and kind-hearted person that I've ever met. I'm not sure there's anything she wouldn't go out of her way to do for pretty much anyone. She's incredibly humble and all but refused to admit for the longest time the position she's in. It's nice to be around and in turn, makes me want to be that much better myself."
"So you two aren't together for a relatively large chunk of time," Jessica starts, "Does that cause any problems for either of you?"
Christian shakes his head leaning slightly to the side again, "No, not really. We both know each other well enough that we know there's nothing that either of us would do to hurt the other. We'll sometimes get frustrated just because we miss each other or one of us had a bad game but never to the point where it's an actual issue. Other than that I don't think we've ever had any issues when it comes to not seeing each other or the distance."
"How often would you two say you, fight, or get into disagreements with one another?" Jessica asks.
Christian shakes his head again, "In the six years Jailyn and I've known each other there are only one or two actual arguments that I can even remember. We bicker from time to time about little things but that really only ever happens when one or both of us are tired or stressed."
"And have you ever thought that there'd be any reasonable doubt that Jailyn was being faithful to you?"
"Absolutely not," Christian says quickly, "That's never even been a passing thought with her."
"To your knowledge, has Jailyn ever lied to you about anything?"
"No, we've always been incredibly open about everything. There's never been a reason for either of us to lie about anything. It's already been touched on about us withholding the truth about the status of our relationship to the public. What everyone needs to understand is that in so many instances your image is your business when you're in the public eye. There are times where you have to withhold your thoughts or opinions on certain things so you don't get into trouble. I can't go out and say that I hate something if I'm asked about it because I could then face a lawsuit or something like that. There is a very large difference when it comes to lying about whether or not you know someone to the general public and lying about something like this." Christian says earnestly before continuing on, "Unlike everyone here I've had to see the emotional toll Nick took on her. Because of the shit he pulled, I've had to witness how hesitant she used to be answering calls from unknown numbers. How unsafe she felt dating especially after ending up on that single date with his friend. I've had to witness the anxiety attacks that she used to have about the shit he pulled. How she always felt that she had to explain in detail everything she was doing and the reasoning because she had been conditioned to do so because of how he'd talk down on her. He fucked with her head so much that for the longest time I couldn't give her anything or help her out without her feeling like she owed me for it. I still have to see the effects of his abuse on her. If there were a chance in hell JJ was lying about this I wouldn't still be seeing first hand just how much of a toll their relationship took on her mental health."
I look down at my lap again and my hands folded together, biting the inside of my cheek. I really couldn't have been easy to love at times huh? "No further questions your honor."
"Thank you Mrs.Hale," The judge replies, "Mr.Clark would you like to question Mr.Yelich?"
"I would your honor," Michael responds standing up taking Jessica's place.