My Stepbrother Is My Secret Master novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: The Stand

The courtroom was smaller than on TV, and colder.

On Wednesday morning, I put my hand on a Bible and swore to tell the truth.

My whole family was in the second row.

My dad in a borrowed tie. Dorinda in navy, no pearls, her hand in his.

Daisy in a blazer that still had the thrift store tag on the sleeve.

Beckett at the end, in his glasses, his hands folded so tight his knuckles had gone white.

He'd testified on Tuesday. He'd told the jury how he took a steel door off its hinges.

Blaire sat at the defense table in a pale pink suit, her hair pulled back.

Her father sat right behind her.

The prosecutor walked me through it gently.

The text about Dorinda. The man in the vest. The door. The bare bolt. The face in the window.

Then she played my video.

My own voice filled the courtroom, thin and shaking.

A woman on the jury put her hand over her mouth.

Then it was the defense's turn.

It was the same senior lawyer who'd slid me the check.

"Miss Prewitt. You've told us you were frightened in that freezer."

"I was."

"But you're no stranger to confinement, are you?"

The prosecutor stood. "Objection."

"It goes to state of mind, Your Honor."

The judge looked at me over her glasses.

"I'll allow it. Briefly."

The lawyer picked up a printout.

The restroom photo, blown up, with the blindfold and the arched back.

He held it toward the jury, slowly, so every one of them got to see it.

"That's you, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"Blindfolded. In a public building. On a call with a man you call Master."

"Yes."

"You enjoy being restrained. Being kept in the dark. Being told where to go and what to do."

"By him," I said. "Yes."

"So isn't it possible, Miss Prewitt, that you walked into that freezer on your own? For a thrill? Or so your professor would come and rescue you, in front of everyone?"

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