Mint [H.S.]

49

*I know the chapters are short, but think of it this way - the shorter the chapters, the quicker I can write them! ALSO! Massive thank you to everyone who said congratulations. You're a dream!*

ISABELLA 

My skin was stained with tears and last night's mascara. There was this awful ache in my shoulder that wouldn't subside. My head was pounding. Everything that happened yesterday played on a loop in my mind and there was nothing that I could do to erase it.

The way that my mother slammed her hands against the witness box, screaming on the top of her lungs profanities at my father- that was engrained into my mind.

"This is all your fault, you fucking son of a bitch! How could you do this to our family? How could you do this to our marriage?" she cried.

"Order! Order! Styles, calm your witness please."

"All I ever did was support you... be the wife you needed. I fucking hate you! I hate you! You destroyed our family! You destroyed us! I hate you!"

"Order!"

Or how my father sat, with his hands handcuffed in front of him, with a smug look on his face while I tried to answer his attorney drilled me with question after question. I felt like a little girl again, being scolded by my mother for having a cookie before dinner. I felt little. Small. Helpless. And all my father could do was sit back and watch... with a conniving smirk painted on his lips.

"Why didn't you go to the police about your father if you heard him on the phone that day?" the attorney drilled me. I stared at him, my head light as my words felt stuck on the tip of my tongue.

"I - uh - I knew nobody would believe me," I stumbled out in response. "Everyone looks to him like he is God incarnate.... do you really think they would believe me if I said he was trying to kill my boyfriend?"

"But- if he was really a threat, and you loved Harry, wouldn't you have tried anyways?" He pressed on.

"I- well -"

"I think if my father was threatening to kill my girlfriend, I would tell someone. Seeing as you didn't, it almost seems like you made this up..."

"Objection!" Cried Dylan. "Badgering the witness."

I can still see how Harry sat in the crowd, with his head low, trying his best to keep his cool. I couldn't even begin to describe how thankful I am for Dylan. I don't think we would have been able to handle even half of yesterday without his insight and direction.

"Harry, you said that you were followed in London." Dylan pulls out photo evidence, giving a copy to the judge, the jury, the defence attorney, and to Harry. "Who is in this photo?"

Harry pulled the photograph closer to his face. "That's Isabella and myself."

"Were you aware that this photograph was being taken?"

"No."

"As you can see your honour, in each of these five photographs are pictures of Harry and Isabella. They were taken by Franklin Maxwell's P.I. to keep tabs on Isabella and Harry. The last photograph is a picture of Harry when he was stabbed. The men were hired by Franklin-"

"Objection! Your honour, speculation. We do not know for certain that these were in fact ordered by Franklin."

"Fuck that," responded Harry. "I know for a fact that they were."

"Harry," Dylan warned.

Harry nodded, staring back at the photographs in his hands.