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Chapter 36
“…Ms. Hunter is to be found innocent on the charge against…”
What else was said was lost in the sounds of joy and laughter filling the room. Even the judge smiled at the announced decision.
Bur when the DA threw his papers into his brief case and slammed the case shut he lost his temper and quieted the room. “Order! Order in my court room!” He glared at the DA, then looked at me. “Ms. Hunter I hope this is the last time I ever see you. You’re friends won’t get off so easy, though.”
I smiled, for the first time in a long time it seemed. “They’re not my friends and you can do whatever you want with them so long as I get to burn that orange jump suit.”
The judge threw back his head and laughed with that. “Young lady you’ve got your self a deal. Case dismissed.” He slammed his gavel down and then it hit me. I’m free, my brain seemed to whisper and scream at the same time. Free…free…free.
“Ms. Hunter.” I snapped back to my reality when my lawyer looked at me with puzzled look.
“I’m free.” I whispered with a smile.
She grinned. “That you are.” She held out her hand to mine. I looked at it and then, on a whim, hugged her.
“Thank you.” I whispered. “Thank you.”
“I told you. You’re a person who needs freedom.” She held me back from her. “And from a woman to a woman that color orange just wasn’t for you.” She grinned.
“Thank you.” That was all I seemed to be able to say. Yet it didn’t seem enough. “What ever the cost I’ll pay it.”
The woman smiled. “I know.” We laughed as she packed her briefcase, shook my hand one last time, and left my life for good.
I sighed and looked around the courtroom. I had been here so many days and yet only now did it not feel like a prison. I reached my hand behind my head and pulled out the pins that held my hair up. I shook my head letting my hair fall down and I was going for my shoes when I noticed a small blond girl, standing and staring at me.
I stood back up and stared back. For a moment time stood still as I remembered how my hair was that color. It seemed as I was looking at a picture of my brought to life. A small, tanned little girl forced from her play clothes into a scratchy dress. Her hair was up in the same way I hated, pig tail spirals. Absently, the little girl tugged at one and itched underneath it.
“Mom loves those things, huh?” I asked in almost a whisper.
“Yeah, I can’t make her stop.”
“Neither could I.” I sat in the chair I felt so confined in before and now welcomed the feeling of my wobbly feet out from under me. The courtroom was near empty now. Almost as quiet.
The little girl came up to me and without hesitation climbed into my lap. “Why did you go away?”
“Because I…”
“Because you fell in love with Ducky?”
I frowned. “Who’s Ducky?”
“Uh, that’d be me.” Brian walked over, a lopsided grin on his face.
I arched an eyebrow and smirked. “Ducky? Hmmm, I won’t ask.”
“So is it?”
I looked back down at the little girl, Honey, my sister. “Is what?”
“Is he the reason you left? Because you were in love with him?”
I looked back up at Brian. His stare was a star that I could never forget no matter how long I went with our seeing him. It always ignited me in a way that I could never forget of could never be compared to. It was something that drew me to him again and again. And I needed it…just like I needed him. There was no deigning the need now. No denying the want. What reason would there be?
I’m not spending 20 to life in jail. I’m not working over him. But what if his love for you was just a support so you wouldn’t crack up, my brain questioned, still not trusting even this man I’d give my life for.
That’s what I feared most out of all this. His love. His love could make or break me and that scared me. I didn’t like being under this man’s power to hold my heart. I didn’t like how this man could melt me with one kiss and then sober me with one word. He was now my everything and I could be his nothing. That’s what I feared. That ‘I was his nothing’.
“Honey, come over here.” I looked up and my mother winked as she took Honey and left, with the rest of the Backstreet Boys, the court room.
“So is it?” I looked up at Brian.
“You know I didn’t love you when this started.” I combed my fingers through my hair. It felt good to have it free from pins or rubber bands. I was totally aware when Brian took the two steps to close the space between us. I didn’t dare look up to his eyes to see whatever he wasn’t saying out loud. My hand dropped to my lap and his fingers hesitantly brushed against my cheek.
“But do you love me now?”
I swallowed and as his finger slid under my chin I looked up at him. He didn’t have to work hard to get me standing and wrapped around him. My fingers tangled in his hair as his hands splayed under my suit jacket. I was taller than he because of my 3-inch pumps was but that didn’t stop him.
His lips were warmer than I remembered and his tongue was softer, more inviting, too. His tongue challenged me into a duel that I willingly accepted. His hands were everywhere and I felt as if the heat would case me to faint. I held on this his shoulders, just as if I was holding onto reality.
“Say it Maranda, say you love me.” His mouth attacked mine before I could respond and I had trouble pulling back. I could feel myself giving into the urge of passions.
“I love you.” I whispered against his lips. “I need you. I want you.”
If it was even possible the room seemed to get hotter as his mouth came over mine again, with more passion than before.
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