Rainy Day | Rhea Ripley

Chapter 33

Now my heart's not listening 

But you keep haunting my dreams 

Like a fucking disease

- Sinner by Of Virtue

"Oh sweetheart, what happened to you?" 

I found myself engulfed in Nina's arms the second she opened the door, I took a moment to take in the older woman's familiar feel and scent, I had missed her more than I realized.

I sensed Demi looking at us inquiringly from the side, but Nina had already turned around to her and hugged her as well, which, understandably, seemed to take her by surprise.

"You must be Demi. Come on darlings, do come in" 

She ushered us inside.

Demi walked into her apartment as though she was in some sort of trance, slowly, taking in the rather unusual choice of decor.

She finally stopped in front of the St. Andrew's cross, slowly running her hand over it.

"You told her about this, right?" Nina muttered next to me.

"Not in so many words" Which was something I now regretted, deeply.

"You're lucky I'm dressed" She chuckled which I chose to ignore.

Nina got us coffee and sat down on the black leather couch with us. 

I had only given her small tidbits of information so now that we were face to face I explained the situation in detail.

"You wouldn't have happened to keep some sort of documentation of what you did, would you?" I ended.

"Oh Alex, you have always been one to underestimate me" she smiled warmly before she looked at Demi and added:

"Even though it used to get her in all sorts of trouble"

She got up and left to go into her office.

"What does she mean by that?" Demi asked, intrigued but slightly perplexed.

"That's a topic for another day" I said through gritted teeth, because Nina was already coming back, a thick folder in hand.

She dropped it on the side table.

"This details every injury I have tended to. The photos I took are in there, as well as a written documentation of them an d what exactly I did. I don't know of how much help this is going to be because they are not official hospital records, but, with your approval, I will contact my friend who cared for you in the ER that one time"

"But that was under a fake name" 

"I made sure to have them take photos as well. In case something like this happened"

"Nina, whatever would I do without you?" 

She chuckled. 

"You would be less corrupted, that's for sure" 

She had sat down on the armrest next to me, one hand on my shoulder, looking down with a sympathetic expression.

"Call Claire, will you? She doesn't want to impose, you know how big she is on respecting boundaries but she's worried sick"

Her voice had turned warm, but stern, the familiarity of her tone sent shivers down my spine.

"I will. Thank you, Nina"

We left soon after, I had a lot of research to do and, even though Demi hated it, we would need to contact Ms. Novak about this as soon as possible.

Nina had gotten her friend at the hospital to drop by and give us the hospital records and when we got home they were already in the mailbox.

Now, Demi and I were sitting at the kitchen island with both of the folders in front of us, daring us to open them.

"You don't have to be here for this" I said.

"Of course I do, I'm not leaving you to do this by yourself" Demi protested.

"No, Demi, I mean I don't want you to. I don't want you to see me like this, so... pathetic"

Demi took my hands and looked me in the eyes.

"You are not, nor have you ever been pathetic. I hate what this asshole did to you, but it will never change the way I feel about you, do you understand that?"

I nodded and took a deep breath before opening the first folder, Nina's, with shaky hands.

It was awful. Every cut, every bruise it was all documented carefully, with photos as well as in depth descriptions. Half of these things I couldn't even remember, my brain must have blocked them out.

Demi was slowly going through the photos, I could feel her anger building with each one.

"I'm going to kill him"

"No. You won't. I don't want to be in a real life version of Orange is the new Black. I wouldn't make it as a prison bitch"I tried to lighten the mood a little bit which didn't work at all.

"Demi, it has been years since this happened. At least this is going to help the trial. But please, I really need you to breathe and relax your jaw, I can't handle this tension right now"

She took a moment, I could see her force her body to unclench.

"You're right" I could hear her take a deep, controlled breath.

"Let's just get this stuff to Ms. Novak, we don't need to be looking at this any longer"

I nodded and gave the ADA a call, telling her we would be dropping this off later today.

Before we went to the courthouse however, I made sure to go to a copy shop to make multiple copies of every single page. I wasn't risking all of this potentially getting lost in some sort of evidence storage room.

"Would this 'Nina' be open to taking the stand as a witness?" Ms Novak asked when we handed her the folders shortly after.

"I'm sure she would, but even better, so would her friend from the hospital. Nina and I had a very close relationship at the time, but I never saw this woman before, or after. That must make her a lot more credible, right?"

She thought about it for a moment.

"It's too late to do that today but I am going to need a little more information on your definition of 'close relationship'. But yes, the woman from the hospital would make a better witness" She explained, before thanking us for dropping by and disappearing into her office again.

"You know" Demi looked at me, arms crossed.

"I would like some more information on this 'close relationship' too" 

She pretended to sound irritated but I could hear the smirk she was trying to suppress.

"Oh shut up" I playfully slapped her arm, causing her to laugh out loud.

"You just wait Marlowe, there's no getting out of this one"