The Vindicated With The Monstrous

Eighteen

"What's the story I know her or don't know her?" Lauren asked uninterestedly.

Normani gave her a look of disapproval before answering, "Well, I don't know Lauren, do you know her? Are you finally going to talk to me or do I have to fabricate a whole story for you?"

"I like that word, fabricate. It sounds so much nicer than lying," Lauren commented with a playful gleam in her eyes causing Normani to shake her head, clearly not amused by Lauren's tactic to not answer her question. She was already used to it though as her sessions basically always got nowhere anyways.

"Lauren, please work with me, your trial is starting tomorrow and I'm considering putting you on the stand so you need to be prepared to tell your side of the story and for cross examination," Normani explained as she now sat down on Lauren's bed, so she can be right in front of Lauren who was sitting on a chair.

"What? Why?" Lauren asked, looking at Normani in shock as she really didn't think Normani would consider putting her on the stand. "You can't do that. I don't want to go up on the stand, I just want for all this to be over already."

"I can do whatever I see as best in this case and if I see you on the stand as something that is beneficial to the case then I'll do it," Normani said back with a warning glare that let Lauren knew she was not to be tested.

"Alright, fine, but why on earth would that be beneficial to the case? I don't have anything to say and I don't think people will think I'm very likeable either," Lauren replied in genuine confusion. Normani was like a mix of a mad scientist with a salesman to Lauren, she could say anything, invent any story she wanted and sell it to the masses with ease, and that was both baffling and kind of terrifying when one thinks of it.

"We'll get to how you appear more likeable, if that time comes. I didn't say you were for sure going on the stand, Lauren. That will only be if I see that they are using an overwhelming amount of character witnesses against you, which is likely because they haven't found any new evidence as far as I'm concerned so they'll be scrambling to paint you as someone you're not in order to cover their lack of evidence. In order to cover the room for reasonable doubt that the physical evidence by itself has," Normani explained simply, it was clear she had gone through this so many times.

Almost too many times, because for someone like Lauren who is getting convicted of a crime they will only go through one trial in their life, one trial where their freedom, the most prized possession someone has, is at stake. But for someone like Normani, this is her life, her life are these trials where someone's life is on line and she is the last mode of defense for this person. The more times she does these trials, the more she, along with other lawyers and other members of court system, may forget how important and impactful this is on that one individual person. It was just another way in which someone who is being tried for a crime, someone who is innocent until proven guilty, is dehumanized; people that work in it go through so many trials that they forget the individual lives they are playing with in them.

"Why do you assume the person they paint me as is not who I am?" Lauren asked. She still didn't believe that Normani actually thought she was innocent, she just believed Normani just saw another case when she was looking at her, a weak case that she can win.

"Because I don't know who you are, Lauren, and I'm someone that's actually tried," Normani said with a sigh as she shook her head, "With that, I can assume no one probably does."

"I guess that's true," Lauren replied, because if this conversation had taken place before the murder then it would actually be. But Lauren wasn't about to explain to Normani how the statement no longer is true because, well, Camila exists in her life now.