"You're the tattoo artist?"
"Yeah?"
"Nah, you're too pretty."
When Oscar Diaz gets outs of prison and goes to a tattoo shop, his life gets turned upside down.
[ DISCONTINUED ]
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"Thanks for coming with me." Venus mumbled, holding Oscar's arm as they waited in the courtroom for the case to be called. The actual case didn't start yet, but Venus had to come for the Pre-Trial Hearing.
"I wasn't letting you see Luis' father on your own."
Venus looked up at him and shook her head with the smallest smile. "You're his father. No DNA test will change that." She stated, kissing the back of his hand and putting her head back on his shoulder. Venus went back to watching her dad do his lawyer things in front of the judge and kept gripping Oscar's hand whenever a new docket number was called.
Oscar kept himself busy by playing with the ends of Venus' hair. At some point, he was trying to get comfortable and threw her leg over his knee, and they've been sitting like that ever since.
Venus didn't know what the numbers meant, but when Venus saw her dad's whole mood shift and he looked back to her, she sat up and it caught Oscar's attention.
When Oscar and Venus saw the guy walk out, it was easy to tell he was the one they waited 2 hours for since he had the dollar sign and the word "Prophet$" tattooed on his neck. The guy looked back to the crowd of people sitting and smirked when he saw Venus and Oscar sitting together. "The people versus DeShawn Carter on the count of rape of a minor in the first degree."
The judge heard the word minor and subtly caught an attitude. "How do you plea Mr. Carter?"
"Not guilty." He spoke up quickly. DeShawn glanced over to Emiliano, smirking before looking back at Venus who was internally freaking out.
The judge looked down, reading over the case as quickly and as thoroughly as she could. "Mr. Carter, it says here that you're 30. The victim is now 21 and has a child who's DNA is a 99.9% match to yours. Not to be biased, but that screams rape to me."
"She wanted me to do that and she enjoyed it. How is that rape?" DeShawn's lawyer nudged him, making him shut up while the judge shook her head.
"We'd like to set bail at 500 thousand." Emiliano spoke up. Before the other lawyer even had the opportunity to speak up, Emiliano cut him off. "Mr. Carter is involved in a gang in Freeridge that distributes drugs and robs people. Just last week, he was caught robbing a bank and holding people hostage. That gives us reason to believe that the Prophet$ are not without money."
"Your honor, this is ridiculous. My client lives in a low economic city, why would he live there if he had enough money to afford a better house?"
"Because low income communities have more drug abusers than other communities." Emiliano countered, making the judge point since it was a true statement.
The judge looked down at the papers she was given and looked between Emiliano and DeShawn. "Bail's set at 500 thousand."
Emiliano nodded, smiling to himself and looking to Venus. Venus was a little shaken up, but continued to watch the guards put DeShawn back in cuffs and lead him to the back.
"Mamas, estás bien?"
Venus pulled her head away from the guards dragging DeShawn and looked up at Oscar who looked worried. "I'm fine." Venus nodded.
Oscar watched her, then stood up, pulling her along. There was going to be a recess anyway, so Emiliano would meet them outside of the courtroom. Once Oscar had pulled Venus away from everyone, she hugged him and broke down, hiding her face in Oscar's chest.
Venus wasn't sure if it was out of fear or the fact that everything was feeling too real for her liking, but she was overwhealmed with emotions. "He's not coming out, you hear me? He's gonna go to prison, and he's gonna rot in there." Oscar told Venus, rubbing her back as her cries became sniffles.
Emiliano walked out and stopped in front of the door, looking around until he found Oscar and Venus hugging. "Estás bien, V?"
Venus pulled her head back to look at Emiliano before running at him and hugging him like she was hugging Oscar. "Thank you."
× × ×
Oscar pulled up to the house with Emiliano parking in the driveway of his house. The front door popped open and Lisbet came out with Luis in her arms as everyone was getting out of the cars. "Mamá! Papá!" Luis shouted, squirming in Lisbet's arms until she set him down and let him run down the pathway to run to Venus. "I miss you!" Luis exclaimed, hugging Venus tightly and leaving kisses all over her face. He then jumped over to Oscar's arms and did the same thing, a big smile on his face while they walked up into the house.
"Cómo te sientes, mija?" Lisbet asked quietly, walking with her armed intertwined with one of Venus'.
Venus shurgged and waited for Oscar to walk in before closing and locking the front door. "Demasiadas emociones, pero estoy contento porque consigo al menos un poco justicia."
Lisbet nodded and kissed Venus' cheek. The two linked arms and walked into the house, closing the door once Oscar came in with Luis.
"Quieren helado?" Lisbet offered, pulling out tubs of ice cream from the freezer before anyone could respond. She had about 3 tubs on the counter when Luis reached forward and grabbed one. Venus didn't know where from, but her mom redused to buy ice cream unless it was a Cuban flavor, so the flavors on the counter consisted of mamey, dulce de leche, and a tub of Abuela Maria.
Venus didn't object and sat at one of the chairs at the island while her mom got her a spoon.
"You wanna go over how the case is going to go, mija?" Emiliano asked as he appeared behind Venus.
Venus shook her head, and stabbed her spoon into the frozen dessert. "Not now, I have a headache."
Lisbet gasped and ran over to the pantry. "I'll start dinner."
