• Rose In The Dark • (GxG)

Chapter One

~ Over A Year Later ~

Noah

Time is intricate. How much it can do to a person, a place, or a thing. How much it can reconstruct a mindset, or a relationship. How much of it we seem to have at the beginning, and how little there really is at the end.

It's precious, and delicate, yet victoriously taken for granted. Leaving some to love it, while others hate it, depending on what it's done to them.

Speaking for myself though, I'm thankful for it. Because without time, I wouldn't be here. I wouldn't have met her. And I wouldn't be secretly sitting in the back of this vast courtroom, watching her at work even though she specifically requested for me not to.

I wouldn't be watching her and thinking, I can't wait for the day I get to call you my wife. To spend the rest of my life with you, as much time as I'm allowed...

I'd admit as well, the courtroom would always be home to me, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss walking the floor and manipulating witnesses. I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss the look on the prosecutor's face every time I'd secure yet another win. It was then that I understood why villains had such remarkable evil laughs. There was no other amusement like that, and being a judge came nowhere near close.

Although it definitely has its perks.

Stilling on an inhale, my eyes narrowed behind my sunglasses as I watched Milan and Jefferson have their second banter within this trial.

"Your honor, come on!" He stood with a widely outstretched hand in her direction. "She's badgering the witness!"

Milan cocked her head at him, a hinted smirk on her face. "Is it really badgering, Jefferson, or are you just upset that I'm asking him first?"

"Oh please Montgomery-"

"Order!" Judge Mavis hit down his grovel, scowling at them. "You two better cease your pettiness this moment before I have you thrown in contempt!" His words grudged through gritted teeth, and I bit my lip to hold in a laugh. "Ms. Montgomery, continue- Mr. Jefferson, zip it!"

The huff of Jefferson's breath could be heard all the way back here as he plopped back down in his rolling chair. "Apologies Judge..."

Shaking my head in amusement, my attention then drew to Milan as she whipped back around to the witness, surely wearing a satisfied grin.

"Now, Owen?"

"Yes?..."

"Describe your relationship with your father for me, please. And don't be shy of important details."

By that she'd meant Kent Tilly's abrasive behavior towards his two children, Owen and Erin, and his now deceased wife, Margret Tilly. The trial at hand was for the homicidal death of Mrs. Tilly, and the defendants were her own kids, for they were at the scene of the crime when the woman died. Mr. Tilly was said to have been absent at the time, though he claimed he'd only gone to the grocery store.

Milan was suspicious of that from the get go. She noted his standoffish behavior, even in the aftermath of his own wife's death. And how he seemed to not care a blink about his own children. However the kids had hardly said a word when she met with them all three times. Which meant she merely had to play detective, which she loved anyway, and figure out most of the case herself.

Given the two of us live together now, of course I'd known more about it than I probably should have. Which meant I could also predict some of Milan's points and angles before she even made them. It was a fun little game I liked to play while hiding as if I didn't have permission to be here.