The Marrying Type || Jensoo & Chaelisa

Chapter 38

The seat in which she sat was uncomfortable; there was leather, there was padding, but somehow it felt like something was trying to hold her, trying wrap it's arms around her and keep her down and chained and restrain her from even the simplest tasks. Jennie wanted to run out of the room, yearned to – but she was all too aware that she couldn't. The reality of her situation matched in no way what she wanted in her mind, and that she hated the most of all.

Her mother was sneering at her. She looked furious, and were there not several yards of space in between them, Jennie would have surely flinched in anticipation of a slap. She could see those cursed hands curled into tight fists, the knuckles which had so often been the perpetrators of bruises on Jennie's skin so pale white Jennie was sure the bones would burst out. Her mouth, her poisonous, vile mouth was pursed shut, the lips stretched out thin and Jennie saw now that the vein on her neck was just slightly bulging. She was enraged, but she hid it well. None but Jennie could even tell, and besides, the attention of the room was not on her.

First they were all fixed on Taeyeon; she stood slowly, her stance strong and powerful like that of a prowling lioness – but her eyes, fixed on Jennie's face, were kind and warm, and Jennie felt her breath ease just the slightest bit.

The questions Taeyeon asked were neither kind nor easy; no, they got right to the point, asking Jennie to detail exactly what her parents had done to her, and what had happened at all the various therapists'; Jennie answered each question with a slow and steady voice, her hand gripping the edge of her seat as she recounted each vile word, each slap, every single bruise on her body and on her soul. It felt to her that each injury, mental or physical, was in her in that instant; when she described the time her mother had pushed her into a kitchen counter, she felt the stabbing pain of two broken ribs and the massive bruise on her side which hadn't faded for weeks. When she recounted all the times they'd called her names, berated her, told her that she was an abomination, she could feel her entire core shaking with the want to release the sobs which she was fighting to suppress. She couldn't contain her emotions completely, and neither did she want to – Taeyeon had told her what she knew was true. Showing that she was hurt, that she was afraid, that she was on the verge of tears, they all worked to help her case.

She spoke even though her voice shook, she let everything out and cared no longer about how it would affect her. No detail was spared; no, she disclosed every single time her parents had hurt her, had shown their hatred for her and their intentional abuse. She could feel the eyes of the jury peering at her, pitying her, and she hated that most of all. To them, she appeared weak. She had returned to her parents after turning 18, when she could've left; she had gone to college and come back, and thus Jennie could easily imagine them thinking that everything that had ensued after she'd become an adult was her fault.

It wasn't, of course. Jennie knew that. She'd returned because her parents hadn't given her any choice, and she told them of that too when Taeyeon asked her. She told the court how her entire career had been put on the line, and how they'd used the threat of massive college debt if she left – they'd only pay if she agreed to stay, if she remained there, if she promised to work for the family and to be the 'good daughter' they wanted.

By the end, she was certain that most of the jury was on her side. They looked at her with not just pity, but with sympathy, but even so, Jennie was disgusted.

She looked weak, sitting in the chair and trying to appear as small as she could, her voice barely audible and shaking as she spoke. She knew she wasn't weak, and hated appearing so. She was strong, she knew that, Jisoo told her that almost every day – Jennie could've easily beaten her parents one-on-one, but this was not her comfort zone. This was not a place where she felt like she could be heard truly; she trusted Taeyeon, and she trusted their case, but she could not shake the feeling and the knowledge that this was her parents' territory.