Beyond Reason

Chapter 34: Innocent

~Keenan~

•three days to trial•

"Okay, so who and who had access to your room at the house?" Carla asks me, sifting through several papers on the table. She has her brown hair pulled into a frilly bun at the back of her head, the same way Jo likes to keep hers. It reminds me of her.

"Not sure," I reply, making an asterisk on the last paragraph of my newest page. Under it, I write 'For bad days.'

I'm not sure where the idea came from, or what exactly my aim is, annotating an entire novel for Jo, but with everything Carla said, coupled with the daggers I saw in the last look she sent me, I have no other options.

"What do you mean you're not sure? I need names."

"I don't know who goes in my room when I'm not there to know who's going into my room."

She narrows her eyes into a hard stare. "Oh, for fucks' sake! Are you reading, right now?"

"I need to get this done before tomorrow."

"Get what done?" She places one hand to her hip and extends the other to me, demanding the copy of 'Things we never got over'. I hand it to her and watch as her features slowly morph from annoyance to neutral, then to worry as she flips through. Her eyes soften as she looks away from the book and at me, somehow conveying both hurt and frustration. "Keenan."

"You said to give her a goodbye gift."

"She'll...she's never going to forget this."

"That's kind of the point," I reply, taking the book back from her. I've made it clear I don't want Jo preoccupied with me through this, but God knows that I also don't want her to forget me. And while I want her to move on and be happy, I won't deny it'll kill me when she replaces me.

"Okay, finish what you're doing, I have to go see Ashley and set our story straight. Be ready in the next hour. Deal?"

"Yeah. Thanks."

She nods and leaves while I collapse into the seat, blowing out a big breath to calm my raging emotions.

I know we've already established the chances that I'm going to lose this thing and that tagging this book will be the last thing I ever do for her, but a part of me can't help hanging on to hope that this'll somehow all pass and I won't have to go through with this.

Alright, fuck it, I want to win this thing.

~~~~

•Day of trial•

"Stare versus Keenan Reid," A short man in a navy version of cop uniform says.

"What do we have brought here today?" The judge, the same one from arraignment court, with his

"Fraud and embezzlement, your honor," Konoe answers, standing straight as a pin in his slightly oversized grey suit.

Beside me, Carla's face is as icy as ever. The judge asks her how I plead and she doesn't even blink as she steps forward. "Not guilty, your honor."

"Very well then." He nods. "Prosecution?"

Konoe steps forward to place and the case flies into action. I do my best to sit up straight and remain poise, as Carla said earlier, but the game playing out in front of me will determine my life for nearly the next ten years. I'm not sure how poise I'm allowed to be on the inside, knowing that I might not be here for Ashley when she needs me, or that I can't be the brother I know she needs at this point of her life. I won't be able to fix things with Joey either, although I'm trying not to think about her. She'll be fine, she's always been.