{zach dempsey ff}
Lily Walker seems to have the perfect life. She lives in a big house, she has perfect grades and she's popular.
"Inside the world of beautiful people, champagne and rolled-up notes, prenups and broken homes, surrounded, but still a...
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Today was the day that everyone had been waiting for. The countdown was finally over and everyone was ready to learn the truth, at least, they thought that they would learn the truth. Hannah's parents had been waiting for this person to be in the stand, the media had been waiting outside court all morning for a glimpse of him, whispers at school got louder when students noticed that the jocks were nowhere to be seen and for the small group of students that had known the truth, who had known what had really happened to Hannah; they were waiting for the lies to unfold. Today was Bryce's day in court and it was going to be dramatic.
Despite desperately wanting to spend the day of court sat with her real friends so that she could show that she didn't support a rapist, Lily had made a promise to her parents and if she didn't keep it then she wouldn't have a future past Liberty High. No one else knew about the agreement apart from Zach and he hadn't told anyone because it wasn't his news to tell. But he knew that if their friends started questioning her loyalties then he would come clean, telling them everything that her parents had been doing to manipulate her into staying around.
No one was more on edge about this trial than the Walker's themselves, Barry distracted himself by making business calls and texting anyone that would reply whereas Nora was stressing over what was about to happen in the courtroom. Fixing Bryce's suit over and over again, as if what he wore would give the jury their verdict. There was no sign of their daughter yet, which made Nora more anxious because they had been bombarded with questions from the reporters on their way in. The plan had been to meet Lily down the road so that they could walk into court together but she hadn't showed up on time and so they walked in without her.
"Aren't the glasses a bit much?" Nora asked her husband, shaking her head at the way they had dressed up their son for the occasion.
Bryce took them off, inspecting them in his hands. "Yeah, I haven't worn these in, like, forever."
"Warren thinks they make him look more empathetic, relatable."
"And can't he just be those things?"
Barry put his phone into his suit pocket. "Look, Warren is the best there is at reading a jury. Our family's on trial today. Speaking of family, I thought you said Lilian would meet us beforehand?"
"She said that she would and she's smarter than this. She knows what she has to do, just give her time."
Lily was running late, even she would admit that but she had had a busy morning. With the help of Mrs Dempsey they had put together an outfit that they thought was appropriate for court the night before, but when she woke up, she realised how much criticism the outfit would get and began running around the house like a madwoman to try and put together an even better outfit choice. Zach drove her to court because he wasn't going to stay, and she kept checking herself in the mirror, hoping that her parents wouldn't make any judgemental comments but then also realising that this was her parents she was talking about, and it was in their nature to pass comments about her.
