After He Left Me to Freeze, I Rejected Him as My Mate novel · Chapter 19 of 24
Chapter 19: Please, to a Bolted Door
The courtroom was warm because the judge had ordered it warm.
I sat in the witness chair in my heated vest, with a blanket over my knees and a cup of water I was not allowed to spill.
Odette sat at the defense table in a navy dress.
Her hair had been washed and curled. Her lawyer had told her to look small, and she did.
Kellan sat in the third row behind the prosecutor, in a plain grey suit with no pin on the collar.
Hester sat beside him. My father sat on the other side of the aisle, in his rumpled cardigan, with his socks matching.
The prosecutor had taken me through the day of the freezer in twenty minutes. I answered every question in one sentence.
Then Odette's lawyer stood up.
He was tall and kind-faced, and he smiled at me before he spoke.
"Ms. Rook," he said. "You lived in Westridge for twelve years."
"Yes."
"You were free to leave."
"Yes."
"You had a car. A bank account. A father four hours away who would have driven out the same night."
"Yes."
"And you never once left. You never filed a complaint. You never told anyone what you say was happening, not your father, not a doctor, not a friend."
"No."
"Isn't that what consent looks like, Ms. Rook?"
The room went still.
He turned to the jury box, with his hands open.
"My client played games with her friend's partner, and the partner kept coming back. Forgive me, but a woman who stays for a year has told you what she can bear."
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