Friends with Benefits

Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Eight

Things I own: my sanity (though, that's debatable at times), not enough time to write and incredible friends and family!!

Things I don't: Twilight, Edward and Bella (Damn. It.)

Chapter 128

EPOV

The case against Paul was bigger than I anticipated. Kim was our first plaintiff. Slowly, more women came out of the woodwork, hearing of her building case against Paul. They were all young, within their first two years of college. When all was said and done, we had over fifty plaintiffs willing to testify against Paul Lahote for sexual harassment. However, the one girl I wanted to talk to, the freshman who was pregnant, we couldn't find her. She disappeared.

Or so we thought.

After a lot of digging, Charlotte found some information on Giselle Martin, the freshman from Pontiac, Illinois. Information in the form of an obituary.

She had committed suicide.

I was packing a bag to meet with her family. I was driving down there, informing them of the case I was building against Paul and somehow asking if they wanted retribution for what they did to their little girl.

"When will you be back?" Bella asked.

"It's just overnight. I'm leaving right after my deposition at eleven. I'm staying in Pontiac tonight and will be back tomorrow," I said, wrapping my arms around my girl's waist.

"Why do you have to go?" Bella huffed.

"Because, I have to speak with this family in person, Bella. It's delicate and not something that you can do on the phone. I'm meeting them at their home. I promise I'll be back before you know it, pretty girl," I said, kissing her nose. We spent the rest of the evening just lazing on the couch. Bella was grading some tests while I was watching Law and Order. We cuddled before going to bed and early the next morning, we made love before Bella had to go to work and I had to prepare for my deposition and two and half hour drive down to Pontiac.

Prior to my departure to central Illinois, I met up with Eleazar, Marcus and Stephen to discuss the case that we were building against Paul. With their guidance, we decided to add the school into list of defendants since Paul was an employee of the school. That way, the women who were forced into the sexual relationships to maintain their grades, could get a much larger payout than just suing Paul, who had not made much in the past few years.

After making a more detailed plan, I left my office and drove to Pontiac, Illinois. Once I reached the tiny town, I checked into my motel before driving to the Martin's home. Parking on the street, I walked up the poorly kept asphalt driveway. I could hear a baby crying in the house. With a heavy sigh, I rang the doorbell and waited for the door to open. When it did, a woman who was in late forties greeted me. "Can I help you?" she asked, bouncing a baby boy on her hip.

"I'm Edward Cullen. I spoke with you on the phone?" I said.

"Oh, yes! Come in!" she said, moving to the side and ushering me into the small, cluttered house. "I apologize for the mess.With this little guy, who's into everything, it's impossible to keep things clean."

"No big deal," I chuckled. I gave the baby a wave. "What's his name?"

"Ethan," she answered, smiling sadly. She kissed the baby's temple before cuddling him to her chest. "He was Giselle's baby before she..." She sniffled and walked into the living room. "Now, what can I do for you, Mr. Cullen?"

"Well, the reason I'm here, Mrs. Martin, is that we're building a case against Paul Lahote. He was one of Giselle's professor's atUIUC, correct?" I asked.

"He's a...a...monster," she spat. "How he can call himself a teacher? A professor? He broke my baby girl."

"She's not the only one, Mrs. Martin," I frowned. Ethan wriggled off his grandmother's lap and toddled over to me. He tugged on my sleeve. I could see Paul in his eyes and hairline. The poor kid was still bald. He giggled, holding his arms up for me to hold him.

"Ethan, no. Leave Mr. Cullen alone," Mrs. Martin chided.

"It's fine," I said, scooping the toddler up onto my lap. The baby boy was enamored with my tie tack and played with it, babbling nonsense as I continued my conversation with his grandmother. "Can you tell me what happened?"

Mrs. Martin described almost the same thing that I had heard from every other woman that we had interviewed. The only difference was Giselle's inexperience; she was a virgin and not on birth control, her resulting pregnancy and her age. When she was first approached by Paul, she was seventeen. She hadn't turned eighteen until mid-December, over the winter break. She had graduated early from high school. I tried to keep my face impassive as I thought about how I could contact the state's attorney about Paul's statutory rape of Giselle Martin and get him thrown into jail for fifteen years. It made it even more tragic after the birth of little Ethan.

"She didn't want the baby. By the time she had found out she was pregnant, around the time of her birthday, it was too late for an abortion. She had Ethan and was ready to give him up for adoption. Until she held him. She couldn't let him go. But, she hated that animal for taking away her choice because she needed to keep up her grades and hated the baby because it wasn't what she wanted. When Ethan was a few months old, I was out with my husband one night. When we came back, we heardthe baby crying. In his room, Giselle had overdosed on an entire bottle of Ativan. She was unresponsive and pronounced dead at the hospital. My husband and I adopted Ethan but it's been rough. My husband blames me for letting her go up to that school and allowing this to happen. I blame Paul, for obvious reasons. My husband and I are separated, trying to work it out, but it doesn't sound very promising," Mrs. Martin said, a deep frown marring her features.

I went into detail on how I wanted to get justice for Giselle and retribution for Ethan, losing his mother and having an asshole for a father. The baby had fallen asleep in my arms and I couldn't help but feel a pang of something as I held him. Mrs. Martin agreed to go along with my recommendations, wanting Paul to pay for what he did. I also encouraged her to press charges against Paul for statutory rape with the Cook County State's Attorney's office. I said I'd work with her every step of the way to get Paul to go to jail for what he did to her daughter. Mrs. Martin was apprehensive, claiming she was not as smart as her husband or even her daughter. I had to explain to her what statutory rape was. When I did, she was angry and appalled. I promised I'd do what I could to make as painless as possible.

We exchanged phone numbers and Mrs. Martin hugged me, thanking me for helping bring Giselle some justice and closure. I handed her back her grandson and I left, making tentative plans to meet up with her in a week for her formal deposition against Paul and the school up in Chicago.

After eating at some greasy spoon, I went back to my motel. I felt proud of my work, what I was doing, but I couldn't help but think what this could mean for Bella. All during her relationship with Paul, he had been cheating on her and causing damage to other girls, both mentally and physically. Would she forgive me for trying to bring down her ex-boyfriend?

I was only doing it because I loved her.

A/N: Drama warning...next chapter...drama warning...Also, pic teasers of Pontiac are on my blog, tumblr and Facebook page: Tufano79's Twilight Fanfiction Appreciation. Leave me some!