Page 15 of Goodbye Girl
“Mr. Nichols, I’m showing you now a copy of a Tweet posted by your ex-wife three weeks ago. It reads as follows:
“‘Shaky Nichols is a thief and abuser who uses bully tactics and worse to keep artists and musicians under his thumb. I know, because he did it to me. He stole my master recordings, and now my life’s work makes him—and only him—a rich man. Go pirate!’”
Shaky’s lawyer returned to the podium but left the Tweet burning on the projection screen. “My first question, sir, is this: Did you steal Imani’s master recordings?”
“Absolutely not. Clover Investments negotiated at arm’s length and paid EML a lot of money for those rights.”
“Were you ever an ‘abuser’ toward Imani?”
“Definitely not. If anything, she was the abuser.”
A rumbling of salacious curiosity coursed through the courtroom. Jack rose. “Move to strike the witness’s reference to my client as an abuser, Your Honor.”
It was the kind of motion that was rarely granted, especially without a jury, but the judge seemed to be considering it.
“Overruled,” he said finally, and Shaky’s lawyer ran with the judicial green light.
“How was Imani abusive toward you?”
The witness seemed a little too eager to unload, which only reinforced Jack’s instinct that it was probably a lie.
“Your Honor, I object,” said Jack, rising once again. “The witness’s effort to paint himself as a victim of spousal abuse is far beyond the scope of relevant evidence in this hearing.”
“It’s entirely relevant,” said Ellis. “It directly relates to Imani’s defense. She claims her ‘go pirate’ campaign is political speech protected by the First Amendment. We contend that it is a continuing pattern of vindictive abuse on her part.”
It was clear from his sour expression that Judge Stevens wasn’t happy about this turn in the narrative. “I’ll allow this line of questioning to a point,” he said, begrudgingly. “But counsel is instructed to proceed with caution. I’m going to keep a tight leash on this.”
“Thank you,” said Ellis. “Mr. Nichols, how did Imani’s abuse start?”
“It began after we got married, when Imani told me that she didn’t believe in a conventional marriage.”
“Did she explain what she meant by that?”
“She wanted an open marriage,” said Shaky.
“Do you mean ‘open’ in the sense that she wanted sexual partners other than you?”
“Yes,” he said, coming across as slightly embarrassed, toning down some of that overeagerness Jack had detected earlier. “Or in addition to me.”
“How did you feel about that?”
“I hated it. If I wanted that kind of openness, I never would have gotten married.”
“Did you go along with the open marriage?”
He glanced in Imani’s direction, this time not with satisfaction but with a hint of anger. “What choice did I have?”
“How did this open marriage work?” his lawyer asked.
“At first, it was just Imani seeing other men. The less I knew, the better. Then we’d have our time together. I would get my hopes up, thinking it would stay normal. But then she’d go away again, always someone new.”
“Did that pattern change over time?”
“Yeah. For the worse. It got to the point that if I ever wanted sexual relations with my wife, there had to be more than just the two of us involved.”
More prurient rumblings from the crowd. Ellis continued: “Mr. Nichols, I know it must be difficult to talk about this in open court, but did you ever speak to anyone professionally about this?”
“I started seeing a psychiatrist.”