Selena’s POV:
It was the day of Tony’s court and Sophia and I had to go and testify to make sure that he stayed in jail. “Mom I really don’t wanna go.” Sophia cried as we got in the car. “Everybody is gonna hear what he did to me,” she said.
“Sophia, you can’t let that man walk free and have the chance to hurt other girls sweetie,” my mom told her. “You can save so many lives if you speak up in court.”
“Soph, you’re not doing this alone,” I told her , grabbing her hand, “ we’re all going to be there,” I said, trying to comfort her. We all stayed quiet for the rest of the ride to the courthouse except when Lily would talk to us.
“We’re here,” Brian said as he put the car in park. Justin and Fredo both got down first and grabbed Sophia’s wheelchair while my mom grabbed Lily. Brian picked Sophia up and placed her in the wheelchair and then I got off of the SUV. As we headed inside the courthouse, Sophia pulled my arm, signaling for me to stop.
“Selena, I can’t do this,” she cried. “I can’t. Please don’t make me do this.” she pleaded.
I put my hands on Sophia’s face, seeing the fear in her eyes. “Sophia, you can do this. You have to do this. Don’t let him win,” I told her, trying to calm her down. “C’mon,” I said, pushing her inside.
We all sat down together on one of the benches, waiting for the court session to start. They brought Tony in with handcuffs and then the judge came in. “First person to testify?” the judge asked.
One of the security guards took out a piece of paper. “Sophia Lynn Gomez, your honor,” he said. Sophia looked at all of us, scared. The security guard came up to Sophia and pushed her to the stand where she sat, looking at us and trying not to cry. One of the attorneys went up to Sophia and started asking her some questions. “You know you have to answer these questions honestly right?” she asked.
“Yes,” Sophia replied.
“How do you know Tony Anderson?” she asked her.
“He was my foster dad.” she said back.
“And did you have a foster mother?” she asked her.
“Technically no, but his girlfriend at the time lived with us,” she replied.
“How did Mr. Anderson and his girlfriend treat you during the period that you lived with him?” she asked her. Sophia looked over to us, looking really nervous.
“Umm…not so well.” she stated.
“Can you describe your living conditions while living with Mr. Anderson?” the attorney asked.
“I pretty much lived in the basement until I left his house. I didn’t have a bed and I got one meal everyday, if I was lucky.” Sophia told her. I didn’t know that she had to go through that and it made me feel horrible. My mom began to cry when she heard Sophia say that.
“Can you please go more into detail with that?” she asked her.
“Whenever I would get home from school, I knew what was going to happen. As soon as I walked into the house, Tony would take off my clothes and hurt me,” Sophia said, trying not to cry.
“Hurt you in what way?” the lady asked.
“H-he raped me,” Sophia cried.
“Can you describe that more in detail please?” the attorney asked Sophia. I was getting angry that the attorney wouldn’t leave Sophia alone when she knew that Sophia was upset.
“Do I have to?” Sophia cried, looking at the judge.
“Yes dear, you do,” the judge answered back.
“H-he would take off my clothes and touch me everywhere. I couldn’t fight back or I knew that I would get it worse. He would tie my hands together with duct tape and then tie me to his bed and…rape me.” Sophia cried.
“How often would this happen?” the attorney asked her.
“Almost everyday,” she said, looking down on the floor. I saw Fredo’s eyes filled with tears so I grabbed his hand to comfort him. Thankfully, Lily had fallen asleep in Justin’s arms.
“And what would he do after he raped you?” she asked Sophia.
“He would untie me and would throw me down the stairs into the basement, still naked. I had a piece of carpet that he would make me sit on the whole night. I couldn’t lay down to sleep or move from that spot.” Sophia said.
“What would happen if you did move or try to lay down?” she asked again.
“If he caught me, he would either hit me, choke me, rape me again, sometimes he would grab my arm and place it over the fire of the stove, or he would sometimes put me in the bath tub and pour boiling water on me,” Sophia said, crying hysterically now.
“Sophia, have you ever self harmed?” the attorney asked.
“What does that have to do with anything?!” Sophia yelled. We could all tell that she wanted everything to stop already.
“Just answer the question,” the attorney bit back cruelly.
“I have, but I stopped when I started living with my family.” Sophia cried. We all started crying when we heard Sophia say that she use to hurt herself. I never saw cuts on her body but then again, I never really looked for them.
“I think that’s enough questions,” the judge ordered. Sophia hid her face in her hands as she cried.
The security guard pushed Sophia back to us and then called me to go up. I explained everything that happened that night that Tony tried to hurt me and then they let me sit back down with my family. The judge found Tony guilty and said that he was sentenced 40 years to life in prison.
Sophia immediately wanted to leave, still crying and shaking. Brian picked Sophia up and wrapped his arms around her. “I’m so sorry you had to go through that baby,” Brian cried. Sophia and Brian both cried together and then my mom wrapped her arms around her. We each gave Sophia a hug before Fredo put her into the SUV. We were on our way home when I saw Fredo grabbing something from his pocket.
“Baby,” he told Sophia so she could look at him holding a small box with a beautiful ring inside of it. “Will you marry me?” Fredo asked, smiling.
Sophia’s face lit up when she saw that Fredo had gotten her the ring. “Yes!” she said, as Fredo slipped the ring on her finger and then gave her a kiss. “I love you,” he told her.
“I love you too,” she replied, smiling bigger than ever. We all clapped and cheered and were so happy that Sophia was happy again.
