One last Chance

relieve

*Evelyn*

Charles hand groped for mine. I allowed it immediately and intertwined my fingers with His. I knew he was nervous.

I was too. Because even though Milo and his boys had done a great job, it still wasn't certain that the police saw it that way, and whether it was enough to restore Charles' reputation, because overnight the hatred towards him had grown so extreme that the press was writing about nothing else.

Social media had been full of it.

There had been so much hate pouring in on Charles and he clearly wasn't used to that. It had gotten him extremely down and he had barely spoken since we got up.

I just put up with him. Better days would come again. Once we were done with Mella.

I stroked my thumb through his palm. He lifted my hand and pressed a kiss to the back of my hand. He looked to the side for a moment and I could see so much love in his gaze that I forgot for a moment where we were going.

He squeezed my hand again tightly as if to say "don't leave me alone".

I returned the squeeze, looking at him as I did so.

Where he went, I would go. And any fight he fought, I would fight too.

Charles winced as we pulled up in front of the police station.

Neither of us had expected the crowds.

First it was tomatoes and eggs flying against the car, then the objects got louder and louder. Charles' breathing immediately quickened.

He could hardly stand it.

A short desperate side glance at me.

I squeezed his hand tightly once again. He gasped audibly.

"I can't do this, Evi," his voice sounded totally panicked.

"It's going to be okay.", I assured him and tried to stay calm, even though everything inside me was just spinning over.

This moment would decide our entire future lives. If we couldn't fix this, we would lose. But most of all, Charles would lose everything. He wouldn't just lose the house. He would lose his reputation, his job, and I was pretty sure they would then take away his custody of Aly for good. He would lose everything if this didn't go the way we hoped it would.

"You're staying with me?" he asked desperately.

I nodded.

I could see police officers making their way to us through the people. It was absolute chaos

"I'll stay with you," I promised.

The policemen knocked rudely on the driver's side window. Charles lowered the window a bit "Turn off the engine and get out! You've already made enough of a mess. We're taking you in now." the policeman said extremely rudely.

And before Charles even had a choice, the driver's door was already opened.

Charles turned off the car, and then he was practically hauled out of the car. The cops were probably there to get him safely back inside, but the way they were handling him, it didn't seem that way at all.

"Evi!" he called desperately, looking over his shoulder.

I had now left the car as well and tried to follow them.

"Evi!", his voice sounded further away, I could hardly see him "You have to let Evi come to me!", he shouted desperately against the increasingly loud crowd.

The policemen did not respond. Then the crowd swallowed them up completely and I could no longer see Charles. Immediately my pulse shot up and I pushed on as best I could.