Evangeline
The drama isn't over yet. Just as the wounds have barely scabbed over, we're all met with another shock. Lucas bursts into my room one afternoon. "We have to go to the airport." His face is slick with a sheen of sweat, and the other boys re half-dressed and bleary-eyed behind them.
"W—why?" I rise form the bed as Lucas begins helping me with my coat.
"It's Mom," Asher says. He looks worried. Something is wrong. The gut feeling gnaws incessantly at me.
"I bumped into the table corner the other day."
Lie.
"We'll explain on the way."
In the car, Lucas is breaching the speed limit. The scenery flies past as we speed down the highway to our destination.
"We got a message from Mom today..."
"She needs help."
"What do you mean?" I ask, fearing the answer.
"I don't know how to explain this..." Max gingerly takes my hand. I shudder slightly. It's the first time he's voluntarily touched me.
Lucas and Chris carefully watch me from the front seat. "We...we think your dad is hitting our mom, like he did with you." There is a ringing in my ears.
No way...
-
Instead of going to the receiving terminal, we are brought somewhere else, to a restricted area. It is a holding room. Mariam sits slouched at a table in the cold room, looking haggard and skinny. Two uniformed officers flank her. They tell us to take a seat.
"Your mother is currently under investigation for being a suspected accessory to crime."
"Please explain." Lucas locks eyes with his mother, and swallows hard. Th oldest here, all the weight is on his shoulders to handle the situation carefully. The officer hands him a few documents, to which Lucas's face pales upon reading them.
"Tony Whitlock is guilty of tax evasion and only laundering in his illegal business. His wife, Mariam Crestdale is claimed to have been an accomplice. We would require you all as their children to at as witness and testify in a court hearing."
With each sentence, our faces whiten more and more.
-
I knew it. I had a feeling, and I should have trusted it. Mariam's eyes were just begging for help that day, despite the reassuring smile on her face.
The vibrant, beautifully confident woman I once came to know as my father's business associate, turned stepmother now looks dull and defeated. Was she guilty? Was she not? So many questions, so little answers.
Today is the day of the trial. The week since we got the news was awful. We couldn't get Mariam out on bail; she's staying in a holding cell. My father has also been detained overseas, and he just few in yesterday. I'm wearing a dress Asher made for me; its simple and plain. Lucas herds us into the car, fumbling with needed documents, and then drives us there. The car is completely silent.
The trail goes by excruciatingly slowly. There are so many people present. Witnesses, former business partners of our parents. Their gazes are weighty on our skin, filled with emotion varying from pity to disdain. The lawyers say things I cannot comprehend. Eventually, the judge lists all the offences. Each one drives home a nail to each of our hearts. I squeeze my brother's hands so tightly their knuckles crack.
"...we would now like to invite the witnesses for Mr Tony Whitlock." Lucas prompts me. He offers me a kind smile, despite his tired eyes. I go over what I'm supposed to do in my head. On shaky legs I rise, and fist a hand over my breast. "I do solemnly, sincerely and truly declare and affirm that the evidence I shall give shall be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth." My palms are slick with sweat. I surreptitiously wipe them on the lace of my skirt. The judge nods, peering at me over his lorngettes. "Very well. Mr Whitlock here already been found guilty of multiple offences, and has been testified against."
I meet my father's gaze across the room. He's dressed in a suit, and somehow look a whole lot healthier than Mariam. It makes me angry. He sneers at me. Even now, he cannot repent. That enrages me. The fury bubbles under the surface of my skin, as I finally realise the extend of the hate I've been hiding all this time. Mariam looks at me as well, her lip quivering slightly.
Make a decision.
"...Miss Whitlock?"
"Yes, Your Honor. I would also like to mention that the accused has been physically abusive on previous occasions." My brothers eyes widen. Mariam's and my father's does as well, their incredulous gazes on my back as I swallow and watch the judge's face show shock. Dad knows he's done for. His hands shake in the cuffs, his glare laser-like as a vein pops up on his forehead.
A hush falls over the room. The silence is deafening; a pindrop would sound like an avalanche in here.
"And do you hold any evidence for such an accusation?"
"Yes...yes I do. Your Honor, please allow my brother to speak."
Lucas, hands in his pockets, rises.
-
We discussed this during the pending days before the trail. They wanted revenge. So did I. Lucas, genius he was, gathered valid evidence to prove my father guilty of such an offence. Mariam also had a few hoots of me and her when I was younger, and the camera had captured areas of my skin in the imagoes that were bruised, cut, scabbed over, leaking blood. I have no idea why she would keep those, but I'm so grateful she did.
Mariam....
The rest of it all is a blur as more of my father's misdeeds are uncovered for the whole assembly, from his beatings to verbal abuse and everything in between. Mariam hands her head, looking displaced. "The final verdict. Miss Mariam Crestdale. Three counts to being an accessory to crime, including two for tax evasion, and one for aiding money laundering from the company on one occasion. As such, you will face an eight-year jail period. Mr Tony Whitlock. A twenty-five year sentence and a $50000 fine on seven counts of tax evasion and money laundering, including physical abuse of your child and wife." The judge's face shows disgust. "Case dismissed."
They take away our parents to someplace we don't know. We'll be able to visit them in a few days before they're sent away.
As Mariam is led away, she glances back. Tears form a sheen in her lovely blue eyes.
"Thank you."
My heart swells. My father never looks back at me. But I don't care. A weight has been lifted off of my chest. The weight and pain of those phantom lashes and beatings seemingly lift off of my skin and fade into oblivion. I'm finally...free.
I clutch Asher and Lucas's hands. They're the most shocked. I couldn't imagine idolisng a parent, having them as your role model, only to find out they did such heinous things. Mariam may have committed a crime, but it was against her will. I know Mariam. She's gentle and kind... but what's going to happen now?
Outside, we all hug tightly. I'm the only one with dry eyes as we all hold each other tight. We're all we have, now.
"It'll be alright, won't it?" My lips move against Lucas's collarbone.
"I—I don't know." He murmurs, tears streaking down his face.
Asher swallow with difficulty. "No. We will be fine, you hear?"
The twins nod, slightly detached. "Y—yeah."
