Buoyed by my newfound strength, I wiped the tears off my cheeks, opened the door to the bathroom and walked back down the hall.
My shoulders back, my head held high with Jaret beside me, I knew I looked confident. And hell, I felt it, too. Jaret’s pep talk had been everything I needed.
When I walked back into the courtroom, I noticed every eye in the room on me. Ignoring them, I went back to my seat and sat down while Tom continued his testimony of lies.
I barely listened to what he said. Twenty minutes later, it was over. His attorney said “thank you, I have no more questions,” Tom was wheeled out of the room and the judge took over.
“Gentlemen, do you have your closing arguments ready?” the judge asked the lawyers, and they both nodded. “Well, then I don’t see why we can’t keep going, seeing as it isn’t even lunch time.”
The prosecution’s lawyer, an assistant district attorney, stood up and got ready to deliver his speech.
He was young, but confident, but without the swagger of arrogance. His suit was nice, but not too expensive. In short, he looked exactly like what you’d expect a young up and coming star in the DA’s office to be. I had liked him, the couple of times I met him, and he seemed good at his job.
Still, I couldn’t focus on his words. My mind was whirring. I was going to handle whatever was going to be written about me in the papers. I knew that. With Jaret by my side, I knew I could get through it. But a part of me was still anxious about it.
What was going to be said? Was everything going to be about how disgusting I was? Or would they just report the facts, report what Tom said, without even being able to confirm it?
The not knowing was the worst part of all.
When both lawyers had finished making their speeches, the judge announced that the jury’s deliberations would start first thing in the morning, and adjourned court for the day.
As soon as the gavel banged against the hard wood, the reporters leapt out of their seats, trying desperately to be the first to have their news reported on TV.
I sat with Jaret, waiting for the rush to pass.
“Do you want to stay in here for a while? Wait for everyone to leave out the front?” Jaret asked me. I shook my head.
“No. As you said, I’m not going to let this change my life. I’m going to go out those front doors, and I’m going to walk past everyone with my head held high.”
“That’s the Mikki I know and love,” he told me, planting a kiss lightly on my forehead. After all, we were the only people left in the room apart from a bailiff.
We got up and left the room.
As we exited the building, the media frenzy was even worse than that morning.
“Was your stepbrother really the father of your child?”
“Do you consider what you did incest?”
“Was Tom Nesbitt perjuring himself on the stand?”
“What do you have to say about Tom Nesbitt’s testimony Michaela?”
These questions and more were hurled at me as Jaret and I stormed past. Standing at the bottom of the stairs, away from the crowd, were Lisa and Kathy.
“We saw the news and thought you might like a bit of extra moral support,” Lisa shouted over the reporters as I made it over to her. I took her into a big hug.
“Thank you. Thank you so much.”
“Lee wanted to be here too, but she had to work,” Kathy told me as I hugged her as well. The four of us crossed the street and made it back to the parking garage where Jaret had parked this morning. It felt like a lifetime ago.
“You have no idea how hard today was,” I told my friends as we hopped into the car. Jaret drove.
“I can only imagine,” Kathy said. “Lisa and I were just down the street, wondering how you were doing, when I checked my phone and saw the news sites running with Tom’s accusation.”
“So it’s everywhere. Great. I’m a pariah now, aren’t I?”
“Well, if it makes you feel any better, so is Jaret.”
I laughed. “The difference is Jaret is way better equipped to handle that sort of thing than I am.”
At this, Jaret laughed as well. “I dunno, I think you handled today pretty well, all things considered.”
“So tomorrow the jury deliberates?”
“Yeah. There’s no way he gets found anything other than guilty,” Jaret announced in response to Kathy’s question. “I mean, it’s not statistically impossible, but the guy just basically butchered any chance at reasonable doubt on the stand.”
“Really?” Lisa asked.
“Jaret’s right,” I replied. “I think he just went up there to say that shit about Jaret and I. My bet is he doesn’t even know it’s true, he just wanted to say something that would make the media write about how much of a whore I am.”
“Well good,” Kathy replied. “He belongs in jail.”
“Agreed,” Lisa replied.
As confident as everyone else was, there was still this nagging feeling in the back of my head. I wasn’t going to be happy until the verdict was read out. And I worried that it was going to take a while before that happened.