Chapter 27

Jennifer

When I arrived at Ryan’s house I expected to hear arguing, throwing things, or some other type of commotion. I wasn’t prepared for the calmness that I heard as I walked up to the front door.

I used the key that Ryan had given me and opened the door slowly. It felt eerie in the house, a thick sense of impending doom came over me.

“Ryan,” I hollered out.

“In the dining room,” I heard his voice say calmly.

Something deep down told me that Roberto would be in there with him. I also knew that something bad was about to happen, but in my youthfulness I believed I would be able to prevent the worse from happening. If I could just figure out why Roberto was so angry with me.

“Sit,” I heard Roberto say before I had even walked all the way into the dining room.

Roberto sat at the head of the table and Ryan was right next to him. I had expected to see Roberto holding a gun to run or something like that. It surprised me when I found the two men just sitting there.

I tried not to look at Roberto because I didn’t want to see that look of hatred that he had had on his face during the trial. I still had no idea why he was so angry with me, but it had to be a mistake. I hadn’t done anything to hurt him.

My whole body shook with fear. I couldn’t get my mind off of why Roberto had looked at me with such anger. I would never purposely hurt someone and I hated that Roberto thought bad about me, I wanted to make him see that I wouldn’t do anything to hurt his case.

I sat down next to Ryan, so I was far away from Roberto as I could comfortably get. I reached my hand under the table and Ryan grabbed a hold of it and squeezed it. It comforted me instantly to have him holding onto me.

“Would you like to tell me what the fuck happened?” Roberto said calmly as he looked at me.

I had no idea what he was talking about. My heart continued to beat rapidly as I searched my mind for any memory of what I could have done to piss Roberto off so badly.

“What would you like to know that I can answer,” I said calmly.

Roberto stood up quickly and slammed his fists onto the table. The quick movement startled me and I felt my heart rate increase even more than it already was. Pretty much anytime I was around Roberto my heart was pounding a million beats a minute; the man scared me.

I jumped back from the table, but Ryan stayed put. Ryan had a calmness about him that I couldn’t understand. He didn’t seem afraid of Roberto at all. I admired the level of calmness that Ryan was able to keep. I certainly didn’t feel that calm with the anger that Roberto had on display.

“Why the fuck was I arrested for killing that woman?”

Oh shit, how was I supposed to know? I assumed he was arrested because they thought he did it. Why else would they arrest anyone? But obviously it would be a bad idea to say something like that to Roberto.

“Obviously it was a mistake, we are glad they released you,” Ryan jumped in to try and calm Roberto.

“I shouldn’t have ever left this house. If you two were the worst lawyers in the world, you would have stopped them at the door and told them you would bring me in for questioning. I didn’t need to be arrested. That ruins our case for re-trial.”

I could practically see the steam billowing out of his ears and knew that nothing I said would have any impact on him. I decided to just sit and I stayed quiet. The best defense was to just try and let Roberto calm down from his anger. Obviously I had not been involved in this at all.

“Well maybe you shouldn’t have murdered that woman,” Ryan said.

My eyes got wide and I looked back and forth between Roberto and Ryan. Why would Ryan say that! Why would he purposely get Roberto angry? Oh no, I knew something bad was about to happen.

Roberto’s hand left the table and he swung at Ryan’s head. Ryan was prepared and stood up quickly to protect himself. The two men moved off toward the fireplace as they took swings at each other and continued to yell.

I couldn’t understand everything that was said, but the one thing that I clearly understood was that Roberto wanted to kill Ryan.

“If you would have just followed the plan you wouldn’t be in this shit,” Ryan yelled as he dodged a fist from Roberto.

“If you weren’t always out for yourself I wouldn’t have to worry about myself all the time,” Roberto answered.

The two men continued their fight and I just stood near the door. I wanted to run for help, but didn’t know if Roberto would try and kill Ryan if the police were called to the house again.

“Your little girlfriend told Mrs. Anderson not to testify and to go into hiding. She wasn’t going to show up to court at all.”

“That isn’t true! I never said such a thing,” I yelled from over by the door.

Roberto turned his attention from Ryan and walked straight toward me. My heart sank and I knew that I should run, but my feet just wouldn’t cooperate. I stood there stunned and unable to move as Roberto closed in on me.