Light In The Darkness

23 - Explosive explanations

"My sister died because of that woman!"

The room filled with murmurs as everyone present started to whisper to each other.

"Put me on the stand." I repeated my request from earlier in the trial to Mr. Gonzales.

Mr. Gonzales nodded and stood up. "My client wishes to take a stand."

Soon enough I sat down on the stand. Mr. Gonzales looked at me with a mix of worry and assurance.

"Miss Jones. Please tell us what's on your mind."

"Look, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I haven't made any mistakes. I have made mistakes, a lot of them actually." I admitted. "My parents weren't exactly the best. They didn't pay much attention to me and my sister Camilla. I took the role of protector on me from a young age, I wanted to shield my sister from most of the things I had to go through. Lola joined our lives quickly and I started to get protective of her as well. Every time someone even looked at them in the wrong way, I lashed out. I had a lot of pent-up anger from my parents neglect and I took that out aggressively on anyone who I thought had been mean to my friends or myself.

I started stealing things so that I could provide for my sister. Our parents barely came home anymore once I was about 15 years old. She was 12. I did have a job but I spend everything I had on bills and to pay for my sister's karate classes. She loved the karate classes so much. I dropped out of school so that I could work more. Everything that I couldn't pay for by working, I either stole or I stole more money to pay for it. I got caught multiple times of course, my record obviously shows that.

I didn't slow down when it came to fighting people either. I had fights multiple times a week and I ended up in hospitals more times than Id like.

I was a thief, I was aggressive and besides Camilla and Lola, I didn't play well with others.

When I was 18, I met Dick for the first time. He seemed to be likeminded at the time so I ended up dating him. I also started doing drugs with him.

We got drunk and high almost every night. It wasn't healthy or smart but it made me forget about the world for a little while. That also made me end up in the hospital very often.

At 21 my sister and Lola staged an intervention for me. They just couldn't watch me being like that anymore. I agreed on rehab, I couldn't deny my sister anything. She was hurt seeing me like that while I had tried to protect her from getting hurt for most of our lives. I couldn't hurt her more by denying her request that I'd go to rehab, so I agreed to it.

I searched my home, discarded all the drugs that I could find and checked myself into the nearest rehab center.

I was there for about 15 weeks. During which I found out that I had gotten pregnant only a few days before I had checked into the facility.

I swore right then and there that I would never do drugs ever again, I've kept that promise to this day.

After I got out, I went to Dick to tell him the news about his child. All he did was scream and yell at me about how I was a liar and that we were done. He hit me multiple times but luckily never in my stomach.

I only found out days later that Dicks sister, wo had hung out with us on multiple occasions, had broken into my home and found a number of drugs that I hadn't been able to find. She had been drinking as well. She got behind the wheel of a car and never made it out.

She died as she crashed her car.

I beat myself up over it quite a lot. If only I had searched more, looked more thoroughly you know? I felt guilt over it for quite some time until my sister made me see a professional. I learned to forgive myself and to stop feeling guilty. My guilt and stress were not good for the pregnancy after all.

I'm not proud of a lot of things in my life. The one thing I am proud of though, is my son. He was my light in the darkness that was my life. All I did from rehab on was for my son. I stopped stealing, learned to not immediately get aggressive and I tried to hold down a steady job to provide for him.

When I got offered the job opportunity of a lifetime, I accepted it. Of course, I only did that after talking it over with my son. I knew that working for the WWE would ensure that my son would have a good future, that I'd be able to get him whatever he wanted in his life.

Working as a wrestler has been a whirlwind experience to say the least. I found an outlet for my emotions in the world of entertainment. I became friends with a lot of amazing people and my life really seemed to get so much better than it had ever been.

The best thing about my work is that I found love there. No one had ever cared for me in the way that he did. Normally I was the one to protect my family yet he started protecting me. He showed me my worth, was always there when I needed to talk and took away all the worries I had.

My son is my light. No one will be more special to me than he is but Windham, he comes pretty darn close. My son is my light, he lit the way for me when I felt suffocated by the darkness in my own mind. Windham was the one who snuffed the darkness out completely.

I regret a lot of the things I did on my path but I don't regret the outcome."

"I know more than enough." Judge winters decided and started her verdict. "Harmony Jones did make many mistakes but she seems to do extremely well now. She loves her son with all her heart and has a lot of support from friends and family. Dick Trevor has never been around for his son before even though Miss. Jones had informed him about her pregnancy. I'm granting Miss. Jones full custody over Levi Jones as Mr. Trevor has no parental rights as far as I am concerned. That's my verdict, case closed."

With a smile and in tears I hugged Levi tightly. My relief however did not last long as suddenly we heard shouting before a gunshot was fired.

It only took me a second to realize what had happened. Dick had smuggled a gun inside and had tried to shoot me. The shot hadn't hit me however. Windham had shielded me before it could.

Windham fell to the ground as Dick was getting held down by officers.

I dropped to my knees beside Windham in panic "No, no, no, stay with me my love."

Camilla had rushed forward to take Levi away as I stayed with Windham, who was losing blood fast. 

_______________

I just wanted to point out that I am not American whatsoever. I don't even know how a custody trial works in my own country, let alone an American custody trial.

If I made any mistakes, please do forgive me for that.