"Nathaniel Cooper, approach the bench."
Riley squeezed his hand as he stood and made his way up. He gave the oath, albeit mentally crossing his fingers, and then took his place on the witness seat.
"I feel like I'm on one of those Hot Seat shows," he muttered.
Stephanie approached him. "Mr. Cooper."
"Miss Roland."
"Please take this seriously, sir."
"I am, ma'am."
"How do you know Miss Rae and her daughter Elizabeth?"
"I know Evie from college. We dated for a few weeks, she attended my sister's wedding with me, and she's the mother of my kid," Nate replied coolly. "I know Libby through Evie. I um... I left Evie without warning before either of us knew she was pregnant. I moved to New Jersey about a month after that. We met again in Florida at a restaurant we coincidentally were both having dinner at with two different parties. Libby was with her but I didn't know that until later when we were talking alone. I finally met Liz the next day at Universal Studios. Evie agreed to let me meet her so long as I didn't tell Libby I was her dad." He quickly sat up. "You put our park passes into evidence to show proof we have an alibi for that day. And the restaurant receipt for the evening before."
"Thank you for noting that," Stephanie said. "You said that Miss Rae refused to let you tell Elizabeth that you are her father, correct?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"But earlier, during the latter's testimony, she referred to you as her father several times. How did she find out?"
"She and Evie were staying with us the same night after the trip to the parks. Evie and her fiancé got into an argument over something—she wouldn't tell me, just that they couldn't be around each other then—and we offered to let them stay with us for the night. They were going back to their Miami hotel the next day and the house we were in was right in the middle point between Orlando and Miami. Anyway, Riley and I picked them up and drove them back to our—sorry, her mom's— place. Right before we were going to have dinner, Evie asked if she and I could talk. We went to one of the guest rooms and she started arguing with me about Libby and how I wasn't 'being subtle' or some shi— crap... And we didn't notice but Liz had come to get us so we could eat before the pizzas got cold and..."
He sighed and shook his head.
"She overheard us."
Stephanie smiled slightly. "You seem relieved with the fact that she knows. Why?"
"I hate lying to kids. You have that– that heavy weight of guilt for giving them false hope. It's so much easier to lie to adults. You don't feel that guilt and it's more believable."
"Mr. Cooper, your father and sister both testified and said that you disappeared after high school, only to reappear for the wedding and then disappear again. What happened?"
"I um... I went to college. Met Evie, got my masters in electrical engineering, apparently got Ev knocked up. I ran into financial trouble and tried to fix that. That's why I 'disappeared' the second time." He put air quotes around 'disappeared' with his fingers.
"I never meant to scare or hurt anyone. I was just trying to get financially stable again. Around two years after leaving college—and Evie—I started gambling. Before you ask, no. The odds were not in my favour. I sucked at it. Royally sucked. Anyway, I stopped gambling after I was pretty much betting off my clothes and pocket lint. Started trying out odd jobs and shit. Met Riley..."
He smiled softly. "Anything else?"
"That'll be all, Mr. Cooper. No further questions."
"The gas station attendant in Oklahoma," King started as he stood, "ID'd you as one of the men who stopped in. He also identified your friend Mr. Rojas over there!"
"We did stop in, yes. For gas and snacks. We were on a road trip." Nate leaned forward and folded his hands on the wooden thing separating himself from the lawyer. "My girlfriend and I were on the news as suspects in a string of crimes. Of course he was going to recognise me. Vinícius, however. I don't see why he would've been a suspect. He's been with us the whole time, since before we left San Francisco."
"He was an ID'd suspect in the robbery of Mr. Jacob Winchester on the 14th of March!"
"He couldn't be! You must have the wrong guy! He was with us all day!"
"Do not yell at me, Mr. Cooper."
"You yelled at me first, asshat!"
"Mr. Cooper," Stephanie interjected. "Calm down."
Nate looked from his lawyer to King to Vinícius.
This was going to be so much harder than he thought.