Trigger warning: mentions of sexual assault
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"Hey," Ashton smiled widely when he saw me walk into his office, "it's good to see you."
"It's good to see you too," I smiled, "I'm here to ask you for some help."
"Help with what?" Ashton asked.
"What is the likelihood of winning a case against a rapist three years after the assault?" I asked.
"It depends on the specifics of the case," Ashton pondered, "why?"
"Do you remember the Anna Fitzgeralds case from a few months ago?" I asked.
"Yeah, we won. We got her released after she was wrongly imprisoned after defending herself against her abusive husband."
"When we were going over the case notes, you asked me how I knew so much about domestic violence," I reminded Ashton, "people can rob you of just about everything, but they can't steal your mind. So I cope with things by learning about them. When I was a freshman in college, I went to a party one night and there was a guy who wouldn't leave me alone. He raped me and then got violent with me after he was done. I didn't report it, but he stalked me after the assault and I got a restraining order for that. I did however go to a clinic to get a rape kit ran, and they didn't do anything about it after the kit came back definitive that I was raped."
"Ava, I never would've known, I'm so sorry," Ashton sympathized, "what can I do for you?"
"I want to take his ass to court now, a restraining order isn't enough anymore, and if I trust anyone to take me seriously and help me fight this, it's you," I admit, "and if I don't win, that's okay. But I need to try. I want to be free."
"His ass is going down," Ashton smiled, "take a seat, give me all of the information you've got."
I smiled as I sat down and handed over a folder full of documents. The results of my rape kit, pictures of the bruises that lingered on my skin from him, notes from my therapist who didn't take me seriously, the police report from the positive rape kit that was ignored, the restraining order. It was everything I had to back myself up. And I plan to take him down.
And so we did.
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FanfictionAvalon Montgomery has been best friends with Jimmy Donaldson since they were in elementary school, but since graduation, they've lived in different cities and don't see each other often. Avalon is about to turn twenty-one and all she wants is to spe...
