Special Needs

Chapter 72: The Trial, Part 5

"Harry and I are getting married," I repeated because when I had said it the first time, Theodore looked like someone had slapped him in the face. How I wished I could slap him for real.

Theodore's jaw fell open while Samuel Klinefeld stepped back as if I had physically struck him. The jury seemed a bit stunned as well but their silent shock was soon replaced by whispers and murmuring.

The judge called for order and banged his gavel again.

Klinefeld finally came to his senses and said, "Well, that's a bit of surprise but it really doesn't make any difference in regards to this trial since everything in question happened before you and Harry got engaged."

"It makes a difference for us," I told him, then I looked back at Theodore. "I hope it proves to you that neither Harry nor I will ever back down in the face of a bully again. You tried to convince both of us that Harry was intellectually disabled when clearly he wasn't, you tried to intimidate us and threaten us and you even tried to kill us to somehow prove that your sick and distorted version of the truth was the real truth, but it wasn't. The only thing your disgusting plans did was to lead me to discover the most intelligent, wonderful, thoughtful, sweet and caring man I've ever met. Only an idiot would be too blind to see who Harry truly is." Theodore's face was beet red by the time I finished, but I couldn't tell whether it was from anger or embarrassment. Either way, I was glad I got the chance to speak my mind. I honestly was shocked that the judge let me speak so long. Maybe he secretly wanted me to give Theodore a piece of my mind, too.

We broke for lunch and did the same thing as we'd done the previous day, which was ordering food in the courthouse cafeteria and then bringing our lunches to eat with Anne, who stayed in the room where she was watching the trial.

"How do you think it's going so far?" I asked her as I took a seat across from her. Harry went around the small table and sat beside her.

"I liked what you had to say to Theodore, although he deserved a thousand times worse," she said with a pleasant smile.

"There were many words I chose not to use because I didn't want the judge to throw me out," I laughed. "But I hope the news of our plan to get married gave him a little jolt of reality. He tried so hard all these years to pretend Harry was something that he wasn't and as soon as I helped him find the freedom he deserved, Harry moved on with his life. His normal, happy, healthy life." I glanced at Harry and said, "Well, at least I hope it's happy."

"Do you even have to ask?" He said, giving me a tender kiss on the cheek.

"I guess not, because I'm happy, too." I went to kiss him on the cheek in return but he turned his head and caught my mouth, luckily with a very PG-rated kiss since we were sitting with his mother, Clive and my parents.

"Does that man know how to lie under oath or what?" Clive said just before he took a giant bite of his deli sandwich.

"Well, I hope that you have a chance to set him straight about the overdose," I said. "Wait, but you didn't come to me until after they took Harry away. What if it boils down to his word against ours?" I worried.

"My opinion should count for more than anyone's," Harry commented. "Besides, can't they look at the recordings from the nanny cams?"

We all stopped chewing and stared at each other. Why the hell hadn't we thought of that? Why the hell hadn't Nathan thought of that? I raced out of the room to find him as he was just heading towards the courtroom.

"Come in here," I said. "We need you."

He followed me and greeted everyone again even though we'd just seen each other half an hour earlier.