Free (Sequel to Through The Dark) Complete

Chapter 73

Harry reluctantly went along with his lawyers, and his stubborn ass girlfriend, with the idea that the trial was still the best idea to get Johnny out of their lives for good. He had accompanied Julie to each of her appointments from that day forward and refused to leave the room through the 'prep' his lawyers made Julie endure. He had interrupted multiple times when they crossed the line in his eyes. The way that they went after Julie was ridiculous in his judgement. He didn't think they should be allowed to question her in a way that belittled Julie, which might lead them to think she was crazy, and he thought surely a judge would stop Johnny's lawyers from attacking her like that. Wasn't there a law against badgering a witness? After two weeks of these examinations, the trial was scheduled to begin today.

It was only 6 am, and Harry was up making coffee and breakfast. Julie was still asleep, but she hadn't been for long. Harry had been up with her until about 4:30 am. It was just impossible to sleep knowing the events that would take place today. They had avoided talking about today in detail, but it was on both their minds. Harry had given up about 15 minutes ago. He was too restless to fall asleep. He decided that even though no one would really have an appetite, breakfast would be good for everyone. He had to search around Niall's kitchen a bit, but he did find all the ingredients he needed. He was making Julie's go-to big breakfast. Mushroom and cheese omelette with toast and a side of fruit. If he could have figured out how to make her home fries, he'd have fixed them too.

Harry started cooking for Julie, himself, Niall, and Amanda. It kept him busy; it didn't make him forget about the day, but it did keep him from strictly obsessing over it. He was trying really hard to figure out a way that they could avoid going into that courthouse today. There was still time to offer the payoff, and the closer it got to them attacking Julie on the stand, the more he was convinced that it was the better thing to do. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He looked up when he heard someone coming into the kitchen. "Hey, Amanda. You're up early."

"Yeah, so are you," Amanda said sitting on the stool across the counter from Harry. "Couldn't sleep?" She leaned her arms on the counter and then laid her head on her arms. "I know the feeling."

"You want some coffee?" Harry asked. He grabbed a mug and set up the Keurig and made Amanda her favorite kind. "Niall still asleep?"

"Yeah, we were up pretty late. He was listening to my ramblings about how we needed to stop this from happening." Amanda sat up and took the mug from Harry. "Thanks for this." She took a sip. "Niall thinks we need to let this play out. I figured I'd have a better chance of getting you to agree to kidnap JJ and whisk her away to another country."

Harry laughed lightly at Amanda's plan. "Yeah, can't say that I haven't thought about it. But it would just delay the inevitable, I have a feeling." He flipped the omelette he had in the pan and started to prep another.

"How's she doing? Really?" Amanda asked. "I know she's hiding a lot from me because I'm dealing with the wedding. And as admirable as that is, it's driving me absolutely insane not to know. And I blame you for letting her hide it from me."

"Whoa. Don't you come after me! You know damn well if I would have come to you, she would have started hiding it from me so that it didn't get to you. I figured I'd better take what I could get." Harry shrugged.

"Ok, fine. I'll give you that. But today is the day. She isn't going to keep me away today, no matter what she does. So, could you answer my question, and tell me how she's really doing?" Amanda pressed.

"She's....well, she's...." Harry sighed and looked at Amanda. "I'm not sure really. Sometimes she seems like she's good. Like she's accepted this, and she's ready to take this on to get control of her life back. And sometimes, I find her crying when she doesn't think I'm awake or if she doesn't realize I'm there. She wants to be strong, she wants to be good with this, but I'm not sure she is completely."