The Boy Who Couldn't Save Me

Chapter 12: Little White Lies - Part Two

never have i ever claimed to be innocent but that's not to say that i have been the monster in this anecdote...
i told the world my story; i told you my story so you could decide for yourself who the real enemy was and if you thought it was me then you were probably right...

My hands were shaking. Sam just got to him and I didn't think that was even possible. As well dressed as he was, he looked terrible.
He was obviously still struggling to deal with the withdrawals of alcohol and not to mention the fact that he was also the same kind of victim as me.
Every single part of me wanting to get off this chair and leave this courthouse. I didn't want anything to do with either him or Hunter anymore but when I looked at Sam who was now leaning over a table, reading his notes, I remembered why I was here and why I was doing this.
I wasn't doing this for me.
My dad stood up and walked back over to the seat he was on when I first got into the room. Sam slowly walked over to me and I couldn't take my eyes off him.
"You doing alright?" he asked me.
"Yeah," I answered. "I wasn't expecting that from him."
"There's definitely a foundation there with him. If I keep digging, I'll get to the root of the problem."
"I hope so. Sam, there's something I need to tell you. Last night, we found a voicemail that I sent Zack the day Hunter raped me. It recorded the rape. Does that mean anything for this trial?"
"I don't think so," he said and my heart sank. "It doesn't mean that we can't do anything with it. This trial is about your dad and all the evidence needs to be against him but we can definitely use it against Hunter if we build a case against him."
I was left with no hope for that. If this meant that I had to go through everything all again then I would rather just forget about it.
"I'm sorry," Sam told me. "I wish I had a different answer for you."
"It's fine," I lied. It wasn't fine. Nothing was fine.
"Alright well, your mom is up next then it's gonna be you. Just try to stay calm and rememeber what we talked about."
"Yeah, trust me, that's the only thing that's getting me through this."
Sam nodded his head and touched my arm before walking back over to the table he was reading from. I looked at my dad who was talking with his lawyer. He seemed stressed. Good.
"This is fucking bullshit," Frankie muttered to himself. He then looked at me. "We had him. We finally fucking had him and we can't do anything about it now."
"Yeah, it sucks," I agreed. "I'm not even surprised anymore. Whether he's in control or not, he still manages to find his way out of everything."
"Yeah, not if I have anything to do about it."
I nodded my head at him but I felt like I was drowning. Things just kept seeming to get worse and I hated not being in control of anything. I never have been. I looked to see Hunter still staring at me.
"Someone can't take their eyes off me."
Frankie looked over at Hunter and his jaw clenched. "Don't worry about him," he told me, without taking his eyes off him. "He's just trying to threaten you."
And it's working...
I shook myself and looked away from him, breaking away from whatever curse he had me under and remembering where I was.
Sam walked over to the judge. "Your honour, I would like to call my next witness to the stand, Lilley Bennett."
The judge nodded his head. "You may present yourself to the stand, Mrs Bennett."
I saw how much my mom still hated being called that. She walked to the stand with her head held high but her posture told me that she was still afraid. She slowly walked past my dad and Hunter like they were raging animals locked in cages, growling and snapping at her. As she sat down, that man walked back over to her and asked if she swore to tell the truth. She did.
After that, Sam approached her.
"Mrs Bennett, tell me what your life was like before you met Mr Bennett."
"I had what seemed like the perfect childhood. It was just me and my brother Stephen that lived with my parents. I was a straight A student and I loved books so much that I had this dream of moving to Seattle to open my own bookstore someday."
"And how did you eventually end up meeting Mr Bennett?"
"I worked in this little bar just on the edge of town. He was a regular customer and he seemed really smart and sweet and I guess I liked that he was a few years older than me."
"What was he like at the beginning of your relationship?"
"He was like a dream," she said this like she could still feel the magic he tricked her with. "It was almost like I started to question what I did to deserve someone so good."
"How long was it before things started to change?"
"We were together for about six months before we finally moved into the house he just bought. After about a month, his dad died and he became cold and violent."
"Was he always physically abusive?"
"No," she answered. "He began drinking heavier than usual. He'd spend sleepless nights, surrounded by empty vodka bottles, night after night. I tried to talk to him about his grief but any time I did, he began smashing things around the house. This continued for about two months until finally, he reached for me one day instead of an object to throw. He pushed me through the kitchen doorway."
"How did he react to that?"
"He walked away from me. Then the next day, I woke up to flowers at the bottom of the bed. It was the same every single time. He was always sorry until he wasn't."
I then remembered how Hunter would always leave a single rose for me every time he upset me. Like father like son. Through and through.
"And, when did the sexual abuse begin?"
I could see that her throat caught her words and was trying to stop her from speaking. She took a few deep breaths before trying again.
"His dad died in March. The physical abuse began in August and then on December, Christmas Eve, he was drunk and woke me up looking for sex. When I refused, he began punching me repeatedly and that was the first time he raped me. I don't think he remembered the next day but I had to act like everything was fine when I could feel my entire body fighting against me. Both the physical and sexual abuse continued. I found out I was pregnant with Bailie in November of the following year."
"When did you meet Dina and Nathan?"
"I met them before I even knew Daniel and they were always so sweet to me."
"Did you ever turn to them for help before they helped you escape?"
"Yes," she answered. "At first, I tried to hide what was happening because I didn't really understand it myself. He didn't try to hide it though. He began leaving me with bruises on my face and Dina refused to let me leave her house until I told her what was going on. She never saw him hurting me, no one ever did but he did."
"Thank you, Lilley," Sam nodded his head at her. "No further questions."
Sam walked over to the table where the scattered pages were. Rhodes walked towards my mom but he had a bit of a dance in his step.
"Mrs Bennett, if what you're saying is true, why would you stay with such a troubled man?"
"Because I still loved him and I knew that somewhere inside, he was hurt and broken."
"And you wanted to fix him?"
"I wanted to help him."
"And, how could you possibly have done that? You're not a psychiatrist or anything, so how could you possibly have helped my client? Did you find a book on psychology and give yourself a degree in it?"
"Objection, your honour," Sam raised his voice with one hand in the air and the other one was across him. "Irrelevance."
"I'm just trying to figure out her state of mind, your honour," Rhodes told Judge Brenner.
"I'll sustain the objection," he said in his majestic voice. "Move it along, please."
"Alright," Rhodes looked back at my mom. "As soon as your arrived back in Seattle a few months back and made allegations towards my client at a very important event that he was hosting, you didn't waste a second to file for a divorce, did you? Why was that?"
"I wanted nothing to do with him."
"Then why stay married to him all these years? Why wait until he's made something of himself to file for divorce? Do you just want his money?"
"What?"
"Well, you didn't speak a bad word about him before he had a reputation. Now, all of a sudden, you come back when he's rich and famous to try and ruin him with your lies and pathetic attempts to turn the world against him. To turn his own daughter against him."
"That's not true, I left because he was abusive."
"But, you didn't take your daughter with you?"
"He disappeared with her."
"Any decent mother in that situation would never have left their own daughter with such a monster of man but you did, didn't you, Mrs Bennett?"
My mom didn't answer him and I could tell he was definitely getting to her. I could only imagine the ways he would get to me too.
"You didn't take any pictures of injuries that he supposedly left you with. You have no evidence to use against him."
"My daughter's enough of that."
I hated that he didn't ask her to elaborate on that.
"Now, you've come back with the plan to poison her against him."
"She left him before I came back."
"And I'm sure that your little friends did you a great favour by doing your dirty work for you."
"You're wrong," my mom shook her head.
"Then tell me, Mrs Bennett, why did you wait so long to divorce him? He still lived in the house you left him in so it's not like you didn't know where he was. It's not like you didn't know where your own daughter was. So, why wait?"
My mom looked over at me and I wanted to do nothing but wrap my arms around her. She was breaking and he was pushing her as much as he could. He had some kind of egotistical and self-satisfied grin on his face and my dad had this radiant smirk as if he'd just won the case.
"No further questions, your honour," Rhodes said and then walked back over to my dad.
"You may step down, Mrs Bennett. Court is adjourned for a fifteen minute recess."
He banged his gravel and my mom jumped. In her mind, in her body, she was back to being that victim all those years ago. She slowly stood up and walked over to us with a wide stare in her eyes.
"Lilley?" Dina said as she hugged my mom. My mom had tears in her eyes and she looked like she was in shock.
"I don't- I don't know what happened," she stammered. "I didn't think I was gonna get like this."
"Hey, it's okay. You did your bit and you told the truth. That's all that matters."
My mom's eyes shifted to me and she had a look on her face that told me she expected backlash from me. I walked towards her and hugged her.
"I'm sorry," she cried.
"It's alright, mom," I told her as I dried away her tears. "Come on, let's get some air."