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Fifty Five-Logan🏒

"The prosecution calls to the stand Evangeline Kingston."

Eve looked sharp, dressed in a dark green dress and black heels. She stood, her face pale and her legs shaking. Beside her, Graham squeezed her hand before allowing her to walk up the aisle. He had been called as a witness yesterday, presenting various text messages and recounting conversations as evidence. Today, he was simply moral support for my sister.

She sat down, exhaling slightly. I gave her a very thin smile and she returned it, although I could tell she was too distracted.

Judge Matthews had her state her name and swear to tell the truth and nothing but the truth before asking her, "What is your relationship to Mr. Kingston?"

"He's my older brother," she replied.

The judge checked his notes before asking, "And what would you consider to be your relationship with Dr. West?"

"She's my friend."

The judge asked her to elaborate, and she continued, saying, "When she first took the job taking care of Logan, I saw her a lot. I was the family member who was able to help out, so I was at his house at least a couple times a week. In the several months since then, we've become closer. If Logan wanted to hang out or get some fresh air, we would spend time together. A couple of times we went out for coffee and went to the movies without him." Ouch.

Seeing the look on my sister's face made me realize just how much Lillian had impacted my life. She and Eve were good friends, for crying out loud. Eve, who had always been kind of quiet and had preferred to study over going out when she was in school, hadn't really had a lot of friends in her life. I knew she kept touch with some of her college friends, and she had a coworker named Allison who she hung out with a lot, but other than that I didn't know about anyone. Lillian might've been my true love, but it was heartwarming to know that she'd also come to mean so much to Eve.

On and on the questions went. Eve answered them all truthfully, explaining what she knew about Lillian, about me, and about our relationship. Sneaking a glance at the clock on the wall, I wished that she would be dismissed soon. With every passing minute, she was getting more pale and looking more nauseated. Talking in front of thirty or so first-graders who were all trying to eat glue and cut their hair was totally fine for Eve, but public speaking was not her strong suit.

"Thank you, Miss Kingston. You may be seated." Eve stood and made her way back to the rows of benches in the back of the room, returning to her place next to Graham. I watched as he put a comforting hand on her back, murmuring something I was too far away to hear. She nodded miserably, but I was forced to pay attention to Judge Matthews again.

I was eternally grateful for Dan Parker, my lawyer and a friend of Nick's. He'd already saved my butt a couple of times, doing everything he could to prepare a flawless case and making sure that I didn't mess up any statements. He'd also been working closely with the Carlos Morgan, the manager for the Dragons. Carlos oversaw all public relations, and I'd been his favorite little nightmare as of recent. Every day, there was a new scandal piece in some obscure magazine or newspaper about either Lillian or me. The ones about Lillian were Carlos's problem too, because any article about her ultimately dragged me into it.

At first, I'd tried really hard not to read any of the gossip pieces. The headlines alone were enough to scare me, although half of them were just speculation. What was maybe worse was the sudden influx of photo evidence of Lillian and me together. Every single snapshot had been overanalyzed to death. The games we'd gone to together were suddenly dates-or were they cover-ups to make it seem like we were perfectly happy together? That mark on Lillian's face (after much zooming in, of course), was that a bruise or simply a remnant of a particularly harsh zit? Around and around they went, always with some fresh new insight or dark conspiracy theory.