Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 87913 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87913 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
“Maybe you’ll be more convincing than me.”
“That’s doubtful. I listened to your podcast and I know that you built a rapport with them over the course of your investigation. If they weren’t willing to believe you, I doubt that they are going to believe me.”
“You never know.”
“Yeah, you never know.” Except I do know. When people are emotionally connected to a situation and have a clear recollection of the past or the past as they believe it, it’s difficult to change their minds.
“I’m sorry. I really hope that they are open to hearing what you have to say.”
“Me too.”
“If you can’t get them on your side, do you still plan on—"
“Yes,” I cut her off. “We will be moving forward with or without them. Our case is solid.”
“I’m happy to hear that. Alice deserves justice.”
“I couldn’t agree more.” I hang up with her after saying goodbye and drive the rest of the way to work, trying to figure out how much this is going to affect our case in the end. The truth is that her sisters siding with the defense, regardless of how strong our case is, could end up fucking us. At trial, all the defense needs is one person on the jury to hold out as undecided, and we will have wasted precious time and resources.
When I arrive at work, I stop in my office and drop of my stuff then head right to the conference room where the staff meetings are always held. Everyone is already seated but there is an empty chair at the table next to Mary, so I pull up a seat.
The meeting isn’t a big deal, just Billy going over what everyone is working on and checking in since we haven’t had a meeting in a few days with him in court.
“How close are we to being able to bring the case against Charles in front of Judge Brown?” Billy asks and everyone in the conference room turns their attention to me.
“I’d say another week, I have meetings scheduled with Alice’s family this afternoon, and Mary and I met with her husband yesterday. After that I want to get everything together, then I should be ready to present our case and hopefully get approval to move forward.”
“Great, I’m looking forward to hearing what you have.” He glances through everyone. “Does anyone have anything for me, anything that I need to know?”
“I’m pregnant.” Looking over my shoulder when that comment is made, I find Jamie sitting in the corner of the room. She looks pale and terrified, but there is also a glint of determination in her eyes.
“Umm.” I audibly hear Billy swallow from where I’m seated. “That’s…” pause. “That’s great news, congratulations.” I turn my attention back to him, his neck, and the tips of his ears have turned a bright shade of red. Dragging his eyes off of Jamie, he looks at me. “Congrats, Dayton.” Oh, hell fucking no. “Alright, this meeting is over, and we’ll all catch up again later this week.” He gathers a stack of folders from the head of the table, then quickly hurries to leave, not looking at anyone as he goes.
With my jaw clenched, I stay seated, afraid if I move, I’ll follow after him, and with the amount of rage sitting in the pit of my stomach, that conversation would not go well. I need a minute to cool down. As people get up to leave, not one person offers their congratulations; every single one of them is looking at me in disbelief. Then again, they have seen Jamie and I interact, and anyone who has seen the two of us together would be hard-pressed to believe that she and I are a couple.
“I’ll see you when Alice’s sisters get here.” Mary pats my hand before she gets up out of her chair and leaves, closing the conference room door behind herself.
“I’m sorry,” Jamie says softly from behind me, and I slowly turn my chair around to face her. “I’ve tried to see him numerous times over the last few weeks, but he’s been avoiding me. He even changed his number, so I can’t call or text.” I watch tears fill her eyes. “I didn’t think that he would imply that this is your child.”
“Did you think that he’d say it was his and that you two would share a moment in the middle of a meeting?” I fist my hands on my thighs. I don’t want to take my anger out on her, but I’m fucking angry. Even if Jamie and I have never had a relationship, the fact that it’s been implied again pisses me off. And the news that she’s pregnant, that just adds a cherry to the top of our fucked up cake. If Franny’s dad catches wind of this drama fest, he’ll hang me up by my balls before I have a chance to explain the situation to him. And even if I’m able to explain things, I doubt he’s going to believe me. I wouldn’t fucking believe me.