He Defended Her, He Said I Deserved It novel · Chapter 14 of 32

Chapter 14: Eight Women

I read the line twice.

Then I laughed, right there in the courthouse hallway.

"She's suing me for a question," I said.

"For the implication of a question," he said. "Good day, Ms. Shore."

He went into the elevator.

Darla watched the doors close.

Then she started down the stairs two at a time.

"Sugar," she said over her shoulder, "that girl just made the worst mistake of her life."

"Two million dollars isn't a mistake. It's a threat."

"It's a door." She stopped on the landing. "She says your question hurt her because it wasn't true. So now how she knew the color is the whole case. Her phone, her car, her night. She opened all of it. Herself."

"Brantley would never have let her file that," she said. "He's off the case one hour and she's already bleeding."

Back at the bond office, Ike read the countersuit at his desk with his glasses on.

"Two million," he said.

"Damn," said Nettie, from the card table.

We both turned.

She went pink to the braids.

"I meant it scientifically."

Ike held out his palm.

She put a quarter in it, very slowly.

That night I couldn't stop thinking about the judge.

Four of his trials, she'd sat through. I'd drawn her for every one.

How many women had I drawn on the stand in front of him?

I'd never counted.

On Friday I drove to Unit 41 alone and brought all thirty-one books back in Ike's truck.

I spread them across my floor upstairs. JURY 1 through JURY 31.

I went page by page. Margin by margin.

I skipped the bank fraud and the wrecks and the two murders.

I looked for women on the stand.

By Saturday night I had eight.

Eight assault trials in six years. Eight acquittals.

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