Jordan Voight: Teenage Years

Buried Secrets Pt 6

Jordan-15

Hank had called Peter down, normally Peter didn't handle cases like these but he took it on as a favor to Voight. Peter had arrived at the District and went to find Hank.

The older man was now with his daughter in his office trying to finish gathering any other information but it seemed as if they had a good, strong, and decent case. They had the girls that Michael abused ready to testify- especially Jordan. Hank had called Michael's mother down to hopefully testify against her husband.

He sat across from his daughter and to think not even a year ago both father and daughter were in the worst states of their lives after losing Justin. Jordan had hit rock bottom but she scratched, clawed, and pulled her way back up from the rabbit hole and pulled herself and her life back together.

"I'm really proud of you kid," Hank told his daughter.

"What?" Jordan was broken from her thoughts.

"I'm proud of you Jo Jo, you came a hell of a long way from last year. You brought yourself a long way, sweetheart"

"I couldn't have done it without your help dad, most parents would have given up on their kids who got that out of control. As bad as Justin and I were you never gave up on us"

"And I never will, a parent should never give up on their child. A parent fights for their child. I'll never stop fighting for you or Justin as long as I'm here"

A smile appeared on her face and she got up to hug her father, Hank wrapped his arms around her holding her close. There was a knock on his door and the hug broke between the two and Jordan opened it.

"Peter, hey. Come in" Jordan told him.

"It's good to see you Jordan. Hank nice to see you as always" Peter spoke.

"Good to see you Peter" Hank shook his hand.

"I reviewed the cases and normally I don't take these cases but I will do this once. Where are the perps?"

"Michael's in lock-up still" Jordan answered.

"His stepfather is still in interrogation. Hank commented, standing behind his daughter. "Peter these guys don't deserve any deals, the kid ain't gonna learn his lesson. He's going to learn it this time. His step-father thinks he's untouchable, throw everything you got at him"

"I'll do what I can. Are any victims willing to testify against Michael?" Peter assured the father and daughter.

Without hesitation, Jordan answered. "Yes. I'm one of them, there are others willing to speak up"

"Do you know how many?"

"At least six so far, others keep coming in"

"I'll do what I can" He gave the teen a reassuring smile.

With Peter's help and the victims coming forward to testify he had an airtight case on Michael and was building one on his stepfather. By the time Michael's court date came up all the girls came ready to testify even Jordan. Michael never thought his life would be like this one minute he was on top now he was on rock bottom.

What Michael hadn't expected was that the judge happened to have been one of the girl's fathers. He was gonna be royally screwed. For the first time in his life, he had no way out of this and his stepfather couldn't help him. For once in his life he had to suffer the consequences of his actions.

After the girls had spoken up about Michael, Jordan stood took a breath, and looked at her paper but instead, she balled it up and decided to just speak from her mind.

"Michael was my first boyfriend and like any teenage girl I wanted to be happy, I thought he was the one. Everything was great at first till it wasn't, it started out small if he caught me talking to another boy, if I didn't answer my phone when he called then it was just for no reason at all. I normally don't get scared of a lot of things but when he threatened my family, my dad, brother, sister-in-law, and nephew I was scared. He was capable of hurting me. I didn't wanna know what he'd do to them so out of fear for my family I kept my mouth shut. The few people I told I begged them not to tell because I was afraid it would get back to Michael. One morning I was getting ready for school, my older brother, Justin" She stopped needing a minute. "He was watching me and he came to get me for school. He walked in and saw that I was beaten to hell and at that moment I had a choice, tell my brother and let him help me, or lie and not risk anything. My brother saw through my lies and I told him the truth and he helped me get away from him. Sure I could have gone to any of the people I told but I didn't want my dad to know not because I was ashamed or anything, I knew how he'd react and the last thing I needed was for my dad to go off the rails. I begged my brother not to tell our dad and he never did. He took it to the grave. A lot of people helped me with this and because of that help, I found my voice and grew my backbone even more. I don't let anyone else bully me, push me around, or any of it. If anything this made me stronger and because of it I will continue to fight everyday if I see a girl in the situation I was in I'm going to do whatever I can to help them. That's when I chose to speak out I caught Michael hitting a girl that I consider my family, I'm not going to lie I did go overboard with violence but I wasn't gonna let Michael hit my family" SHe had looked over to the teen boy. "Even though you don't deserve it, I forgive you, Michael. I'm not gonna let you or anything you did to me define who I am, I'm gonna grow from it, I'm gonna fight for other girls like me. That fear and anger you put in me only made me stronger as a person and it's going to stay that way"

After finishing her statement she sat down and the judge issued his ruling and sentenced Michael to 3 years in juvenile detention until his 18th birthday and then he was to serve at least 7 more years in prison. He'd serve at least 10 years. His stepfather's case hadn't started but they had found additional charges that Peter made stick. Obstruction, paying off the girls that Michael had abused, bribing city officials, money laundering, he was even being investigated for drug trafficking.

He wouldn't see the light of day for a long time if ever again.

Hank took his daughter home, it had been a long and mentally draining day for the both of them. Once inside the house, Jordan hugged her father tightly.

"I'm sorry for waiting so long to tell the truth Dad" Jordan spoke softly in his chest.

"Don't be sorry we got it taken care of now and they'll never be able to hurt anyone ever again" Hank told her, wrapping his arms around her.

"I'm just glad I can put this behind me and so can everyone else"

..........

And that's the end of this mini-saga. I do apologize for the long delay in my Chicago stories. My mom passed away back in August, the Chicagos were some of the shows we watched together, and I'm slowly easing back into them. Stay tuned!