Defendants with Cameron Dallas

Chapter 1

I sat in my chair with my head down. I didn't want to hear how Hannah had killed her father. He had, in my mind, done nothing wrong. I often get criticized by people who know so little about our ordeal for thinking that way, but it's what I believe.

What never got published, because until I get called on to the stand no one knows, that Hannah had tried to kill him before.

The only reason he ever partook in our kidnapping was because he feared for his own life. People wanted to hate him, but they didn't know that he was murdered because he had put our safety over his and had tried to get us out.

For that I consider him in many ways our hero.

I didn't want to hear how many times Hannah had stabbed him or the agony he was in as he slowly bled out. I already couldn't sleep at night, I didn't want any more nightmares.

I sniffle as our lawyer, who agreed to also represent Hannah's deceased father, lays down a background on Hannah. He describes her as a crazed fan, a lunatic. He explains to the jury how she was obsessed with Cameron and how she used her large amount of money to build the ultimate prison.

But Cameron and I weren't really the focus of the murder charge, we were simply the motive. After she didn't kill either one of us. Although at many times since we escaped I felt like I wasn't really living.

While I was held captive by Hannah I'd often dream of a future with Cameron, after all I had to find something to keep me sane. But now that that dream seemed like a real possibility I didn't know what to think.

I grappled with my fears day and night. I hadn't gotten a single full night of sleep since I left the hospital. I couldn't relax. I lived in the constant fear that Hannah would find me and finally end it once and for all.

More than that though I was afraid of if Cameron really truly wanted to be with me. Somehow, being in that prison I felt more confident in that future. Now though? He has the world at his disposal. There's nothing stopping him from going back to that bar in LA and picking up another girl just like me.

I flinched as Cameron took my hand.

"How are you doing?" He whispered.

I sighed. I hadn't even wanted to come today. I was barely able to get through getting ready this morning.

I glanced over my shoulder at the media in the back. Instantly flash bulb after flash bulb went off.

I turned back to Cameron. "I'll be alright." I lied.

"We'll be wrapping in an hour." He rubbed his hand on my back between my shoulders. "We just have to sit through her journal entries."

I sniffled. I nodded slowly. "Ok." I said to my lap.

The first day was only the beginning. Our lawyer tried to lay a foundation of evidence against Hannah. He wanted to show the jury that she had planned this that she planned to kill him in the event we tried to escape from the very beginning.

I couldn't look at her journal entries. I didn't even want to hear them read. It was bad enough that those days in captivity haunted me while I tried to sleep, I didn't need to be reminded of them while I was awake too.

I sat in the back seat of a black SUV on the way back to the apartment Cameron and I were staying at for the time being. The apartment was nice but it lacked most of our things.

We had an apartment that Cameron had signed for, for us, while I was still in the hospital but one of his friends had accidentally led media there.

"You ok?" Cameron placed his hand on my thigh.

"I'll get there." I looked out the window at the passing apartment buildings.

"I'm here if you need to talk, Kate."

I placed my hand on top of his. I turned my head to look into his brown eyes. "I know."

Soon we were back in our apartment. I set my purse down on the kitchen counter and walked back to our bedroom.

Cameron followed me in and shut the door behind him.

"Can you help me?" I asked over my shoulder.

"Sure." He said as he took his tie off.

He stood behind me and slowly unzipped my dress. He ran his hand across my shoulder under the dress.

The dress slipped off of me and fell to the floor in a pool at my ankles. I stood there in my navy blue bra and underwear.

Cameron pulled my long curly hair to the side and began planting warm kisses on my shoulder and up my neck. He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me close to his body.

I pulled his hands off of my stomach and turned around to face him. "I can't." I said breathlessly.

I took off for the bathroom. I ran in and quickly shut the door behind me. I turned the lock with shaking hands. I sat on the side of the tub crying.

I didn't want to push him away but I was scared. Seeing Hannah in the courtroom today still wearing her wedding rings shook me to my core. It was a reminder of what I had gone through. It reminded me that I had signed him off for what?

"Kate?" Cameron knocked on the door. "Kate please open up."

I sat there in my underwear looking around at the bathroom.

"Kate, let me in." "I can tell something's wrong." He knocked again.

I ran my hands down my bare thighs trying to steady my breathing.

"Kate, please, we can talk through this." He paused. "Kate?"