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Chapter 39
Chapter 39
CHAPTER 39: A DAY IN COURT
Sitting out in the hallway at the courthouse, waiting for our case to be called, I can’t stop my leg from bouncing nervously. Jace literally has to hold it down with his hand, and even then, it doesn’t stop it completely. I don’t think I would be quite as nervous if I didn’t have four pair of eyes burning holes into me from down the hall where my attackers sit and wait with their lawyers and parents. When I take a quick peek in their direction, they all glare except for one. Mason sits a little apart from the other three and has a smirk plastered to his face as he stares at me. I turn back to Jace and my parents who are oblivious to the others. I guess if they can ignore them, I should at least try.
I place my hand over Jace’s that is still on my leg, and I give it a light squeeze. When he glances at me, I smile and mouth the words thank you. He nods and then lifts my hand to place a kiss on top of it. My face heats when I see that my mom noticed Jace” s little show of affection, and she smiles excitedly. My eyes roll at her, but Jace still rumbles under his breath.
“Such disrespect, Precious. That earns you a spanking once we get back home.” Jace raises his brow as he speaks softly to me,
“That wasn’t for you, Jace.” I whisper.
“It doesn’t matter. I plan on breaking you of that eye roll you seem to enjoy using on everyone.” He gives me that stern look, daring me to argue, but I know better. Instead, I give him what I know he likes to hear.
“Yes, Sir.”
He smirks and then kisses my hand once more just as our case is called. He never let’s go of my hand until we get to the front of the courtroom, and I have to go through the little swinging door to sit at the Prosecutor’s table. He doesn’t go far, though. In fact, Jace and my mom sit directly behind me, giving me their strength to make it through this ordeal.
The bailiff asks us to stand as the judge comes into the courtroom. The judge is a man who looks to be in his early fifties, with a scowl painted on his face. I’m not sure if I should take that as a good sign or a bad one, but then I hear my dad’s sudden intake of breath and I glance over at him. There is a tick in my father’s clenched jaw as we are told to be seated. I don’t have to ask him what is wrong because he leans in right away and tells me that this is a different judge than the one that was supposed to preside over this case.
Well, this can’t be good. Why would they replace the other judge? I turn my attention back to the room when I hear a burly voice talking to the Defendants. Of course, as expected, all four plead not guilty, and the hearing begins. When this all started and we went through a grand jury, every juror had agreed on an indictment, giving us hope that the trial jury will see it the same way as the grand jury, but my dad explained that it isn’t always the case. Different evidence can be brought in that could change things around, but we are hoping that since there really isn’t any other possible evidence then it should be an open and closed case, with us coming out as the victors.
One by one, each of my attackers takes the stand to try and defend themselves the best they can. My father is brutal as he asks both Toby and Brandon the questions that he had lined up for them specifically since Toby is the one that held me, and Brandon was the one that was about to rape me. When Kaylee got on the stand, though, my dad played nice at first, until he was sure that Kaylee had let down her guard, and then he laid it on her the worst, because she was the ringleader in all of it.
When Kaylee started her fake tears, I glance over at the jurors and notice that about half are sympathetic to her, while the others show no signs as to how they feel at all. By the time all four are questioned, it’s time for lunch and the judge calls it, telling us that court will resume in one hour. I’m so ready for a break that I quickly leave the courtroom and head for the women’s restroom.
My bladder was about to burst had the judge not called for lunch, so it felt so good relieving myself. I step out of the stall and go straight to the sink to wash my hands and pat my face with some cold water. As
I’m bent over the sink, I hear the door open, and to my dismay, hear a nasally voice speak to me as though she has every right to do so.
“Well, look who we have here! Little miss goody-two-shoes who thinks that she’s going to send us to jail over a stupid little prank.” Kaylee stands directly behind me and crosses her arms. Property © of NôvelDrama.Org.
I ignore her completely just like my dad had instructed me to, but Kaylee isn’t having any of it. She steps in my path when I try to leave, and every time I go to walk around her, she follows, blocking my exit each time. Kaylee isn’t the one that scares me, she’s just annoying as hell, but I refuse to give her anything that will work against me in this case, so I just wait her out. I stare at the wall just past her as I ignore every word, which only pisses her off.
“I don’t know what Jace see in you,” she looks me up and down, “You’re a pathetic nerd. Oh, but wait, that’s right, you let him do
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whatever he wants to you, because you’re his little greedy whore, aren’t you?”
Her words send me into a slight panic, because they are the same words that are said on the video. If Mason is the one who took the video, did he show it to the other three as well? I must give something away in my facial expression because Kaylee starts to chuckle.
“You do, don’t you? How many others do you spread your legs for? Who else gets to call you a dirty slut and greedy whore?” | finally glare at her, but she sneers back at me, “I should have let them rape you, you fucking cunt! Then we would have seen if Jace would have still wanted you! You’re nothing but…”
“THAT IS QUITE ENOUGH!” A voice cuts her off, but it’s not one that I would have expected. Kaylee’s mom stands in the doorway to the restroom with a bright red face as she glares at her daughter.
“Mom, what are you doing?” Kaylee’s annoyance at her mother’s interruption is noticeable in her voice.
“I could ask the same to you, Kaylee! You know you are not supposed to have any contact with Ella, and not only do you break that order, but the words, also, that I just heard come out of your mouth…” her mother takes a deep breath, “I don’t even know who you are anymore! You need help, especially after what you all did to poor Ella, Why, Kaylee? Just because a boy you liked didn’t like you back? The woman shakes her head with tears in her eyes, “I don’t fault him for not liking you, I wouldn’t want to date a vile girl like yourself either!”
“What are you saying mom?” I hear a bit of hurt in Kaylee’s voice when she asks her mom this question.
“I’m saying that I hope they send you to some kind of treatment center, because you need help, and I no longer wish to have you under the same roof as me and your father. Not until you’ve gotten the help that you need.” Her mom then turns to me, “Please forgive me, Ella. I don’t know where we went wrong in raising her, but we must have somewhere. Please let us know if there is anything that her father and I can do for you.”
Inod, “Thank you, Mrs. Simpson. That really means a lot, and I don’t blame you or your husband for this. This is all Kaylee. ***
Mrs. Simpson holds her arm out to me, and I move towards her as I step around her daughter who is now frozen to where she’s standing with her mouth hanging open. The woman puts her arm around my shoulder and walks me out of the restroom, leaving her daughter behind.
After Mrs. Simpson walked me over to my family and relayed everything to my dad that she overheard her daughter saying to me in the restroom, she gave me a hug and wished me good luck. I don’t know about you, but I know I can’t even begin to try and understand the pain that woman must be going through, having to turn her back on her own daughter. I would like to believe that I never have to worry about it, but I’m sure she thought the same exact thing at one time.
My father had excused himself, telling us to go grab a bite to eat and that he would meet us if he had time. He needed to meet with both judge and Defense attorney about adding Mrs. Simpson to the witness list for the Prosecution. He wasn’t gone long before he met us at the diner across the street from the courthouse. It was all set and needless to say, the Defense wasn’t happy about it at all.
When mom excused herself to make a phone call after she was done eating, dad excused himself as well, leaving me and Jace alone for the first time today. I’ve picked at my food the whole time, only taking little bites here and there, but I just didn’t have the stomach for it right now. My thoughts are all over the place after my run-in with Kaylee. I don’t know why I was handpicked to be bullied by them; I still don’t know why Jace did it either. I glance over at him and see that he is already staring at me, probably wondering what I’m thinking about.
“You seem to have a lot on your mind, Precious. Would you like to share any of it with me?” Jace asks.
I study him a moment, “Kaylee said something in the restroom, and now I can’t stop thinking about it.” I shrug.
“And…?”
I sigh, “She referenced a couple of things that were said in the video that was made of us. How would she know? Do you think Mason shared it with her, with all three of them?”
“Maybe it wasn’t Mason. We just assumed it was because Madison wouldn’t give up the name.” He thinks about it for a moment, “Maybe it was one of the others or Kaylee, herself.”
I scoff, “I highly doubt Kaylee would climb a tree just to get a video.”
Jace nods in agreement, “Very true, but hey, her and the other two seem pretty tight, so maybe one of them?”
I throw my hands up in frustration, “That’s just it, all we can do is assume, and obviously we know it was one of the four of them.”
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Jace takes my hand and holds on to it over the table, “Hey, try and calm down. There isn’t anything that we can do about it right now. Let’s just concentrate on getting through today and then we will turn our attention to the video, okay?” He brushes a piece of hair away from my face and smiles at me.
I can’t resist his smile and I find myself returning one of my own, “I’m so glad that you are here with me, Jace. I don’t know how | would be able to get through today without you.”
“I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else, Precious.” He kisses my hand.
“Jace, can you tell me why you did it? It keeps getting pushed off, and I need to know why you tossed me aside two years ago.”
His eyes turn stormy, but Iit’s not towards me, he’s mad at himself for doing what he did, “Do you remember that party that we went to together before everything went to shit?”
I nod my head, “I’ve gone over that night a million times trying to figure out what went wrong. I know I was angry with you because you left with Madison without telling me, I had to hear it from Mason.”
“Yeah, well, it seems like Mason had a lot to do with it as well, since he’s the one that lied to me.” Jace scowls.
My forehead creases when I crinkle it in confusion, “What do you mean, Mason lied, about what?”
Just as Jace goes to answer, my phone rings and the caller ID shows that it’s my dad, “Hey, Dad.” I answer. He tells me that we need to be back in the court room in less than ten minutes, “Oh, okay, we will head back then. I love you too, Dad” i hang up and notice that Jace is already
settling our bill with the server, “Dad says we need to head back.”
“Yeah, I figured as much,” he smirks and then tells the server to keep the change, “I guess we better head over. We will talk later, and I will finish my confession.”
I smile softly, “Okay.”
I know he isn’t trying to hide it from me, but for some reason, the story does not want to be told because something always pops up. If it wasn’t for court, I’d make him tell me it all before we leave, but court takes precedence over our little talk. Jace holds my hand the whole way again, making me feel wanted and loved. Kaylee’s words haunt me just a little bit when I remember her saying that I’m a pathetic nerd. I know I’m smart, and even I’ve called myself a nerd, but pathetic?
Jace shakes my hand to get my attention, “Get out of that head of yours, Precious, you aren’t doing yourself any favors by being there right now.
“I know, but I can’t help it.” I defend.
“Well then, as your Dom, I’m ordering you to keep your mind on this trial and forget everything else, or I will bring out the cane later and stripe that pretty peach of yours, and I will not give you any mercy.” He says it all in his deep voice, making my panties instantly wet.
“O-Okay…”
“Okay what?” He asks sternly.
“Okay, Sir, I understand.”
“That’s my girl, now let’s go in there and take those motherfuckers down.” He turns us and pushes through the swinging doors, taking us back into the courtroom.
I don’t know how or why, but every time Jace uses that voice, my body reacts to it, not allowing me to disobey him. For the next few hours, my mind is completely on the trial and nothing else. My palms sweat the whole time Mrs. Simpson testifies, and when Jace takes the stand as well. He seems so cool and collected while my dad goes through his line of questioning, but I notice him start to waiver when the Defense steps up and asks him his first question.
“Mr. Palmer, will you please tell the court what your relationship is to the plaintiff?” The lawyer asks.
“I’m Ella’s boyfriend.” He looks right at the jury as he states this so proudly that I have to grin. I also hear my mom chuckle behind
me.
“Jace,” the lawyer begins, “You don’t mind if I call you Jace, do you?”
I notice the tick in Jace’s jaw right away, “Actually, I do mind. You may call me Mr. Palmer.”
A Day In Court
I fight the giggle that wants to burst out at his words and at the sight of the Defense lawyer turning a shade of pink, obviously taken aback at Jace’s response.
“My apologies, Mr. Palmer,” the lawyer pauses briefly, “Mr. Palmer, can you define the word boyfriend to the court.”
“Objection!” my dad calls out, “I think we all know the definition of a boyfriend.”
“Your Honor, I’m only trying to establish the kind of relationship they have, and you will understand why.” The Defense pleads.
The judge frowns at the Defense and then looks over at my dad, “Overruled,” he then looks over at Jace. “You may answer the question.”
“Thank you, your Honor, the lawyer turns back to Jace to await his answer.
Being the smartass that he is, Jace proceeds to answer the Defense, “There are a couple different definitions for “boyfriend’.”
The lawyer looks confused as he glances around the courtroom before his eyes land back on Jace, “By all means, educate us on the definitions that you know of.”
“Well, you need to be specific, Sir. You see, my mother owns a clothing store, so when you ask me to define the word boyfriend, it could mean the description of women’s clothing that is designed to be over- sized.” Jace smirks as soft chuckles break out in the courtroom. My dad has to cover his own smirk.
The judge slams his gavel down on his bench, “Order in the court!” The room quiets down once more.
“Thank you, Mr. Palmer, for enlightening us all as to what over-sized clothing is called for women.” The lawyer puts his hands behind his back, “Now please tell us the definition of boyfriend within a romantic relationship.”
“I guess it’s a male partner within a relationship.” Jace sounds bored as he answers.
The lawyer chuckles, “I guess you’re right, but tell us, Mr. Palmer, are you called anything other than Miss Baxter’s boyfriend?
My heart stops within my chest. What the actual fuck is he getting at? Is he meaning what I think he’s meaning? I look over at my dad, but he has a poker face, other than the tick in his jaw. When I look back
at Jace, he’s remaining calm, but he has a look to him, as if he’s trying to determine which route to take. I don’t know how long I hold my breath for, but I finally let it out when I feel my mother rub my back.
“As far as I know,” Jace begins, “boyfriend is what people see me as in Ella’s life.”
“Oh really,” the lawyer turns toward the jurors, “so, you’re not known as Miss Baxter’s Dominant? Is she not your submissive?”
“Objection!” my dad calls out, standing up this time, “What they do in their private life has nothing to do with the attack!”
“Your Honor, I’m just showing the jury that the plaintiff enjoys being slapped around, and so it does have to do with the attack, because she is accusing the Defendants of abusing her.”
“I’m afraid that I will have to sustain the objection. The Prosecution is right, it has nothing to do with this case. You’re walking on thin ice, keep the questions about the case.” The judge reprimands the Defense.
“Mr. Palmer,” the lawyer continues as though he wasn’t just scolded, “Is it or isn’t it true that for two years, you bullied the Plaintiff?”
My eyes go wide, I hear my mom gasp, and my father turns his head to me, but I don’t take my eyes off of Jace. He looks over at me, and I can see the pain in his eyes, but he doesn’t try to hide the fact.
“Yes, it’s true.”
My father automatically asks for a five-minute recess to go over this new information. I’m dreading those five minutes alone in the room with my father, but surprisingly, he’s more pissed at the Defense for bringing up another thing that has nothing to do with the case. Without going into great detail, I quickly tell my father everything that happened over the last two years. How Jace stopped being friends with me and how he had the whole school against me. Even though he doesn’t say anything, I know that it will be best if Jace doesn’t come around my dad for a while.
Returning to the courtroom, I make eye contact with Jace and give him a reassuring smile. I never thought that this would come out in court, but it has, and we have to deal with it. My mom gives me her ‘we are so going to talk about this at home’ look right before the judge comes back out,
The only good part that came out of this is that Jace and I no longer need to have our little talk, because it all comes out in court
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He goes on to say how he was lied to by Mason and was led to believe that the girl he was in love with and was going to profess his love to that night had gone and been intimate with another guy. He explains how he went around and got everyone against me, threatening or blackmailing them in order to stay away from me. He also admitted that once he got some sense back, he was in too deep to back out of all the lies he spread and that’s when he started bullying me, so he could keep other guys away from me by claiming that I was his to torment.
The whole time I sat here listening to him coming clean, all I could think of was how it could have been cleared up if only he had asked me. He threw away two years all because I supposedly slept with someone? I’m not sure how to feel about this, I mean, what he did was a bit excessive for what I was being accused of doing. We weren’t even dating, so he had no right to be mad at me even if it was true.
He doesn’t look at me once during the telling of his story, but I see the winces when he brings up certain parts, and I know he’s struggling with what he’s done. It doesn’t take away the fact that for two years he hurt me by his actions, but we are trying to mend that crack, and me knowing the real reason for him doing what he did, isn’t going to make me change my mind. I decided that I was going to try and keep the past in the past, and try to move on, and I’m going to stick to it.
“Is it true, Mr. Palmer,” the lawyer’s booming voice brings me back to what’s going on around me, “that on one occasion where you bullied Miss Baxter, you did so in an empty classroom with Mr. Anderson and Mr. Feeney in the room as well?”
“Yes.”
“And is it true that you had them hold the Plaintiff down so you could punish her by pulling her pants down and spanking her.***
“Yes.” Jace’s jaw ticks.
“Mr. Palmer, is it true that you were the mastermind behind this suppose attack?”
Igasp. What in the heck is he saying? Is he really trying to put Jace behind that whole night?
“Wait, what?” Jace is shocked by the question himself, “No, that is a lie! I had already made amends with Ella, and I would never hurt her like that!”
“You’re saying that you didn’t pay the Defendants to scare the plaintiff?* The lawyer asks.
“Objection, your Honor! Why didn’t any of the Defendants mention this when they were on the stand?” My father asks.
“What grounds do you have for this line of questioning?” The judge asks.
“I withdraw my question, your Honor.”
“Jury will disregard everything about Mr. Palmer having anything to do with this incident.” The judge informs the jurors.
My heart beats begin to slow back down. What a prick, trying to trick Jace like that! Keeping my eyes on him, Jace finally glances over at me, and what I see is troubling. I knew that Jace already blamed himself
for the attack, but now this asshole lawyer just made it worse by pretty much saying the same thing. My father was right, he’s trying to pull crap out of his butt to try and get the four of them off.
I’m on the stand now retelling the jury of the night that Toby, Brandon, Mason, and Kaylee ambushed me, held me down, stripped me, and abused me not only physically, but sexually as well. I also told the jury about the first time Toby attacked me, but that was thrown out because it wasn’t part of the case even though it shows a pattern of abuse from Toby
“Ella,” my dad says my name softly. “Do you see your attackers in this courtroom today?”
“Yes, I do,” I point over to the Defendants table, “All four of them.”
“Please note,” my dad faces the jury. “that the plaintiff picked out, Toby Anderson, Brandon Feeney, Mason Baker, and Kaylee Simpson as her attackers.”
“I have no more questions, your Honor.” As soon as my dad sits down, the Defense stands up and walks over to me, smiling.
“Miss Baxter, you pointed out the four Defendants as your attackers and yet you testified that you did not see their faces clearly. How can you be so sure that these four are the ones who attacked you?”
“I have gone to school with all of them except Mason ever since we were in preschool. I know their voices, and Kaylee has a very distinctive voice.” More chuckles break out in the room but are quickly quieted with one look from the judge.
“Okay, fair enough, but that still doesn’t mean that you have the right culprits. What about Mr. Baker? How do you know it was him?”
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“Mason recently came to me to apologize for avoiding me and playing into Jace’s bullying tactic. I was helping tutor him in one of his classes, so I have been talking to him a lot lately. I was very surprised to see that he was there with the others, but then it came out that all of it was just a con for me to befriend him.”
“Why would Mr. Baker be conning you?” The Defense asks
“I’m not sure. That was never brought up.”
“So, Miss Baxter, you are one hundred percent sure that these four are the ones who attacked you even though you never saw their faces?”
“Yes.” I say very sternly.
“Okay, I guess I don’t have any more questions.” He says before turning and walking back to his table, but just as he’s about to take his chair, he holds up his finger, “I’m so sorry, your Honor, but I do have one more question for Miss Baxter. He turns back to me, “Miss Baxter, with your hidden love of the kink lifestyle, do you make it a habit of videoing yourself and your partner having said intimacies? Was this just payback for one of the Defendants, or maybe all of them, finding out about your videos?”
I pale. “What videos are you talking about?”
“Are you saying that you and Mr. Palmer do not record yourselves in your private moments?”
“Absolutely not!” I am totally shocked that he would even ask me this question
“Oh okay, so the three videos that are on kinkporn.com are not videos of yourself and Mr. Palmer?” He asks, smirking
“Id-don’t know w-what videos you’re talking a-about…” It’s getting harder to breathe and the room is beginning to spin.
“Your Honor, I would like to move that Defendant’s Exhibit A be introduced into evidence.” The Defense requests and the last thing that I remember is my dad asking to approach the bench before all goes black
Hello friends! Hope you enjoyed the long chapter. I could have gone on and on during the beginning of the trial, but unfortunately, I’m only allowed so many words per chapter. Hopefully you weren’t too disappointed. The end of the trial will be in the next chapter. Have a wonderful Tuesday everyone! =)