Spark (GH Series #5)

Part 32

Ellie

I've screwed up, royally. I went from thanking Jack for being amazingly supportive to her walking out, saying she needed to clear her head. This morning, I was on edge. Probably because of my mum turning up last night, the shite sleep that followed and when Jack was being her usual attentive self, I shot her down in flames and said some things that I can't exactly take back. The minute Jack stood near the door, trying not to show the hurt on her face, my heart broke as I spotted a tear streaming down her face and she spun on her heals, grabbed her keys and left.

Now I'm driving towards the courthouse as I have to meet up with my lawyer and discuss my mother turning up last night. Although no words were actually exchanged, I am rattled that she turned up at Jack's and just stared at me and I lost my patience and slammed the door in her face. Then I don't know if Jack will even look at me when she takes the stand later, giving her evidence to the court. When I arrived, Carson and Damien were standing huddled outside in the freezing cold and Carson lifted her eyebrow when she realised that I was alone. "Where's Jack?"

"It's best if we don't go there. Not right now." The tears were threatening to spill, and I wasn't in the mood to redo my makeup if it ran. Carson went to open her mouth but quickly closed it and nodded her head.

My meeting with my lawyer went well and she was more than pleased that I told her about last night's events. It was a possible witness intimidation or the fact that my mother actually genuinely wanted to talk to me. I will probably find out soon enough. We were in the courtroom and once a few things were said, Jack's name was called and she entered the court room, giving of an assured vibe that nothing or no one will kick her ass in court. "When did you first suspect that Ellie was being harmed?"

"When we were at my sister's, Carson's, bachelorette party in Malta."

"Would you mind telling us how that came about?"

"It was a few things to be fair. We were learning a dance in Malta and I noticed that she flinched a few times and then another instance where we were playing water volleyball and we were on the same team and I hoisted her out of the water for her to reach the high ball and she let out a gasp."

"Did you ask her about it?"

"I did, she never gave me a direct answer, at first."

"What do you mean by that?"

"When I had my suspicions about her bruised side, I asked her about it, she flat out denied it, then when I jabbed her side and she let out a whine, like she was in pain, then when I asked her about it, she never said anything. I threw my hands up in the air as to show her that I was giving up and she shied away like I was going to hit her. That's when the truth started coming out." Hearing all this was hard and as I predicted, Jack never once looked at me but instead focused on my lawyer. I so desperately wanted to make eye contact with her, to show her that I was sorry for my outburst this morning, but this wasn't the time nor the place to do it. My lawyer asked her a few more questions especially about the night I finally uttered my safe word and my throat felt constricted listening to Jack retelling the events from that night.

The judge announced a break for lunch and the court room was quickly emptied. As Jack was still giving evidence, it wasn't wise for us to be seen together at all and this was killing me. I sent her a message on her phone, I got a read response, but that was it. No actually response back. I've hurt her this morning and she's stewing on it. I know Jack is a deep thinker and she would have barely had any time from what I said this morning, to appearing in court this morning. Dreading going back into court after lunch as the defence will be launching into Jack.

***

"Are you honestly telling me that you and the accuser were not in a relationship at the same time as she was dating my client?" I could see Jack resisting an eye roll and although it was somewhat comical watching her refraining herself, it was stomach churning listening to the defence trying to get Jack to admit things that were simply not true.