After Before and After

Phase 4: Chapter 84

"How could this have gone through without anyone finding out?" Jeffery Langley asked, his tone much more aggressive than it almost ever was.

"It looks like the DA had this under the rug, and didn't finalize Jack Merridew's name on the witness list until last night" Zoey Berman explained.

The Langley family followed Zoey into one of the deliberation rooms right after court that Monday afternoon. Jack was the last to testify before the noon recess, and Zoey spent the entire hour running around looking for answers as to how Jack wound up on the witness stand that morning. Presently, Jeffery was hard pressed for an explanation from Zoey as to how they were kept in the dark about such a major key witness to Ralph's case.

"Can they even do that?" Laurie asked with concern. "Isn't it required that both sides are notified about every witness before they testify?"

"Yes, technically. But if an attorney wants to make a spectacle of it, sometimes they wait until well after business hours to fax the revised witness list over to the opposing counsel's office. Most of the time, the opposing counsel doesn't find out until midday recess at the earliest. In this case, the message didn't get to Jeremy Reynolds until this morning, and he wasn't able to connect with me in time to give us a heads up" Zoey attempted to explain in layman's terms.

"So Barnes, the DA, did this on purpose then?" Jeffery concluded, baffled with frustration.

"It appears so. It is my understanding that she wanted to surprise the defense with Jack's testimony so that Jeremy Reynolds would be unprepared for the cross-examination" Zoey elaborated.

"Shit" Jeffery cursed under his breath, something he usually only ever did when he was alone. "So how bad is this?" he increased his volume to ask.

"It's hard to say, it will really depend on whether or not the jury is swayed by Jack's testimony. The good news is that Barnes won't be able to prove any of what Jack said, but we are also going to have a hard time disproving it. Our best shot at coming back from this is going to be through Ralph's testimony when the case is turned over to Reynolds. Barnes had a difficult time with the character witnesses against him, which is a good sign. So long as none of the other boys get up there and corroborate Jack's testimony, I doubt it will hold up" Zoey insisted.

"Okay, that's good... so you're still confident we can win this case?" Jeffery sought to clarify.

"Yes, I am" Zoey assured them. "I will find out as much about this as I can, and we will make sure that nothing like it happens again going forward. Our case is still solid, and I have no doubt that we can  turn this around to create reasonable doubt."

"We only need to convince one juror, right? If even one of them thinks Ralph might be innocent, the conviction won't go through" Laurie assumed.

"Yes, that's correct. This isn't nearly as bad as it looks right now. My advice to you all is to just shake it off, head back to the hotel, do a mental reset, and try your best to not overthink it. Barnes will continue with her case against little Percy Madison tomorrow. The worst part is over, I can promise you that" Zoey continued to reassure them.

"Thank you, Zoey. We are grateful for everything you've done for us over the last several months" Jeffery was finally calm enough to say.

"Of course" she nodded warmly.

"It isn't true" Ralph spoke up for the first time since they entered the deliberation room, his voice quiet and small.

All three of the adults turned to the teenager, surprised to hear him chiming in.

"What's that, baby?" Laurie asked gently.

"It isn't true" he repeated a little louder. "What Jack said. None of it's true."

"Oh, we know, sweetie" Laurie cooed at him as she approached. The mother wrapped her son in her embrace in an effort to comfort him.

"Come on, let's get out of here" Jeffery sighed heavily. He was so busy being angry about getting blindsided in the courtroom that he completely forgot to consider how all this was affecting Ralph.

The Langley family returned to their hotel room with a cloud of gloom hanging over their heads. Jeffery and Laurie put their things down, looked to each other, and both sighed tiredly. They then looked to Ralph, who was starting to feel like a zoo exhibit, like his parents were just waiting for him to burst.

"I gotta pee" Ralph mumbled before stalking into the bathroom without another word, closing the door forcefully behind him.

Laurie and Jeffery turned back to each other, both evidently feeling defeated and confused.

"Why?" Laurie finally asked, "why would Jack--? I just don't understand. Did Paige say anything when you last talked to her?"

"Not a thing" Jeffery sighed. "Honestly, I don't think she even knew about it, Laur."

"Well, we need to talk to her. If she didn't know about it before, she certainly does now" Laurie suggested.

"I agree, but let's give it a few hours. I'm sure she has her own questions she needs answers to before she'll have anything helpful to say to us" Jeffery proposed.

"I just don't understand, I don't understand" Laurie exclaimed in frustration as she started to pace.

"We'll figure this out, Laur" Jeffery attempted to comfort her. "Okay? We'll figure it out."

Meanwhile, Ralph stood in front of the bathroom mirror just as he did this morning. He tore his blazer and button-up off and stared at the hickey marks Jack left on his neck and chest the night before. Except, the happy, giddy feeling he had this morning was replaced by the sting of betrayal. It would've been so much easier if Jack just never dragged him over there last night. Did he do it just to hurt Ralph? Was it his goal to make this worse for him? Was he really so awful that he couldn't resist using the love Ralph harboured for him as a weapon?

Ralph stared at his reflection as hot, angry tears filled his eyes. This was like that day in Brookhaven when Jack dumped him on Malcom Conroy's front steps, except a thousand times worse. How long had Jack been planning this? None of it made sense.

"I do love you... don't ever forget it."

Why say it? Why bother saying it at all knowing what he was about to do? Ralph had a million questions circling around in his head, a neck covered in bruise-like marks he couldn't explain, and the burning desire to destroy everything in sight like a vandal.

So Ralph destroyed the only thing he had the heart to destroy; himself. Unable to stand there and stare at the gut-wrenching reminder of last night any longer, Ralph brought his hands to his chest and neck and began to tear his skin up with his nails, making sure to strike through every last hickey Jack left as a parting gift.

Ralph scratched and scratched and cried and cried, his face growing hotter and hotter, tears falling down and mixing in with the blood of the wounds he inflicted across his chest. Ralph tore his chest and neck up like a rabid animal, until every last mark Jack left behind was wrecked with blood. He didn't stop until he had no more energy left, and could no longer ignore how badly each wound stung.

He found his own eyes in the mirror again, and the mess of blood all over his chest and neck. His breathing was heavy, forcing his chest to rise and fall dramatically. His eyes were bloodshot and glassy, his cheeks hot and red with anger.

The memory of standing in front of his own bathroom mirror in East Point back in January of 1992 came flooding back to his racing mind now. That late January night was the first night he really looked at himself in a long time. It was forty-three days after Jack dumped him in Brookhaven. And in that moment, staring at his hollow, broken reflection in the mirror, a younger version of Ralph decided it was up to him to make it better.

Ralph presently saw the same hollow, broken look in the mirror that he did over two years ago now. Except, he wasn't convinced that it would ever get better this time.