Our Worlds Apart

Chapter 5: Justice Served With A Side Of Spicy Marinara Sauce

*TRIGGER WARNING: SEXUAL ASSAULT

Jordan, Veera, Reese and I got back to New York. At ISTC, the masters had yet another Sunday meeting, to welcome and inaugurate our intern masters. They'd be here for a month and see if they like New York and ISTC as a sort of "Trial", if you will. If they liked ISTC, they'd stay here for good and become official masters. If they didn't, they'd move back to Korea. Both Reese and Veera were a bunch of party animals, and I had befriended Veera especially. She was quite the hoot.

I was at my house now, laughing to myself about how much I loved the Inner Spirit Taekwondo Center. It was like my second home.

Suddenly, By initiated a call in the Gang chat.

"What's up?" I asked. Surprisingly, everyone in the gang was on the call. But for some reason, all their faces looked rigid and serious. They were all just staring at their screens in monotone and weren't as lively as usual.

"Hey, um, this is going to be quite a serious conversation," Nat started, fidgeting with her nails.

"What is it?" I screeched. "Tell me!"

Annaya took a deep breath. "Kiddo, this is going to be hard for you to hear, but we can't avoid this, so... we are taking Pranav to court."

My mouth flew open as my stomach fell in shock. "WHAT?!"

"We can't avoid this anymore," Annaya said. "Remember we tried locking him up two years ago but he got bailed out due to his dad being an influential businessman. Well, our parents and I and the Blue Voice have been tirelessly working against this. We figured that instead of locking him up in our organization's prison, since nobody else knows that the Blue Voice exists and Pranav's parents are going to make a ruckus, we've decided to take him to court, with you as the plaintiff."

I gulped, feeling nausea in my throat.

"I know this is hard for all of us, especially you, since you were the victim of his abuses, but we have to do this. He's attempted to murder you and By twice, and next time he might actually kill you," Ritz concluded. "We're doing this, and while you were in Korea, we did a lot of preparation so we could break it to you when you got back."

My eyes welled up with tears as I let out a big breath I didn't know I was holding. I needed some private time "Thanks. I-um-just realized I have to study for a law test. I'll um-catch you guys later."

"We love you, Deepu," everyone said at the same time as I cut the call. I let out big, heaving sobs of relief as I closed my eyes and cried as hard as I could. I didn't know if this plan would work or not, because we've already been through this legal process before, and Pranav got out of jail in less than a week.

But looking at this positively, I might finally get justice.

***

After my cry fest, I called Annaya privately to talk with him.

"So... when are you guys coming back to New York?" I asked him.

"We're flying in soon," Ritz explained. "Viji, Ken, By and I booked tickets for November 30th. Our parents are also flying in. Akiko's staying back because someone has to look after Adzuki. I'm pretty sure Nat's taking the subway back as well. We'll all be staying together at our apartment until this legal matter is resolved and that psychopath goes to jail for good."

"Why'd you guys sort this all out without me?" I asked. "He was my abuser."

"You weren't in a stable mental state at the time. We needed you to recover first. So we figured to handle some of the basic stuff before getting back to you."