Free (Sequel to Through The Dark) Complete

Chapter 76

After lunch, the judge wasted no time in getting Julie up on the stand.  She raised her right hand, put her left on the bible and swore to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.  It made her stomach turn to think about all the details she was going to have to speak about during her testimony.  The whole story she would have to tell.  Every painstaking detail about her past.  She had been working on it, but there were still things she was ashamed about.  She sat down and let out a deep breath.  She played with the tissue she had in her hands and waited for the first question to come.  God, she felt sick.  She hoped she could hold it together.

Nate walked up towards Julie and rested his hand on the front of the witness stand.  "Ms. Jackson, please, take your time.  If you need a moment, just let me know.  We'll take this at your pace."

Julie nodded at Nate and took another deep breath.  She wished she could have had a drink before she did this, but probably was not the best idea.  She looked anywhere but at Johnny or Harry, or anyone else.  She found a spot on the swinging door and focused her eyes there.

"Ms. Jackson, we've heard Johnny's story about how things went in your relationship.  We'd like to establish your side.  From the beginning.  Could you start on how old you were when you and Mr. Thomas met?  How old he was?  Please provide us with your version of the back story."  Nate asked gently.

"I was 19 when we met.  He was 26.  I had been out of high school just over a year.  We met at a mutual friend's family's house."  Julie recalled.  She hadn't thought about all of this in so long.  It was still hard for her to go back to that time.  "Johnny was friends with my friend's older brother.  We all were at their family's lake house for the weekend.  Johnny and I started talking, and we just seemed to hit it off.  I was wondering why someone older, and what I thought more worldlier, like him, would be interested in someone as young and naïve as I was, but he never made me feel that way that weekend.  When we went back home, we just continued to talk and then started dating, I guess; he asked me out, we went out.  And it just kind of went from there."

"And, we've established that you moved in with Mr. Thomas pretty quickly then?"  Nate asked Julie.

"Yes, we'd only been dating a short time before I moved in with him."  Julie admitted quietly.

"A short time, is 2 months, is that correct?"  Nate prodded Julie gently.

"Yes, that's right."  Julie said.

"That does seem like a pretty quick decision on your part."  Nate said trying to get Julie to continue.

"Yes, I know.  And looking back, maybe I would have made a different decision.  But it felt right at the time.  I was in awe of him.  I still couldn't believe that he would be interested in me.  He treated me like I was the best thing that ever happened to him.  We were spending all of our time together anyway, so when he asked, I just thought it was the right thing to do."  Julie said.  "I don't know.  I keep thinking back to that time, and I still don't see anything at that point that I should have seen.  Things were good.  I thought we were in love."

"In two months you thought you were in love?"  Nate asked.

"I was 19.  I didn't know how it worked.  It's not like I was all that experienced in love.  I didn't know what it was.  He was the first real relationship I had been in.  I'd had a few crushes and some casual dating in high school but nothing like I thought this was.  I trusted him.  I thought he knew so much more, and he told me how great it would be."  Julie remembered.  She was hating remembering any of the good in this relationship.  But the beginning had been good.  She didn't know at the time that he was working her in.  Making her trust him, get attached, love him so that she would stay when the true him came in.  It was like a game, and he'd played it well.