Page 41 of Tempting the President

“This is where he belongs.Freaks for freaks.”

I pressed my hands to my ears harder, but it was no use. In my mind, other voices were becoming louder, inescapably so.

“Come on, surely there’s another freak inside. Don’t be shy. Come out, come out, wherever you are.” Laughter followed his taunt. Three...four other voices? And they had all stuck together the way bullies did.

Cold sweat crept all over my body. I struggled to stay in the present, but the words were too evil, too painful, too strong, forcing me to spiral back into the past.

Violent trembles afflicted my body as I struggled to get away, but it was too late. The past sucked me in, deeper and deeper—-

The courtroom was quiet as a tomb, and in many ways, the place was exactly that. If it did not have Ashton in it, then that place was dead to her.

At Aria’s right, Dan’s eyes were on her. It had been so all this time. Did he really think she still considered herself as his daughter?

She was eighteen now. Old enough to be an adult, old enough to choose how she wanted to face them.

And she had made that choice today.

Today, she was the plaintiff, and they were the defendants.

Amelie was the first to take the stand, and confronted with questions that she couldn’t answer, she ended up in tears. “I loved him. He’s my son, how could I not love him?”

Aria wanted to scream. Liar! Liar, liar, liar!

So many times she had heard Amelie say she wished she had gone through with the abortion. That she was sick and tired of having to care for Ashton all the time.

How could she keep lying? How?

Someone knocked hard on the booth’s extended edge, the sound jostling me out of my memories. I came back with a silent shudder, and I looked up, disoriented, wondering if it was all over.

But it was not.

Theywere still there, and everything they did only reminded me of the people I desperately wanted to forget.

“Hellooooooo? Any freak in there? Or maybe you can’t hear us, too?”

Their laughter stabbed me, and I found myself sinking in an ocean of memories.

“Hahaha.”

Oh God, I didn’t want to remember.

“Hahaha.”

But I was weak and helpless, always was, always had been, and soon I was drowning under waves of grief.

When it was her turn at the witness stand, Aria was extremely careful not to look at Amelie and Dan. If she did, she would lose it. She would want to kill them, would want to summon the devil and trade them to get her baby brother back.

Her hand shook as she took hold of the marker and started writing on the whiteboard, her only way to communicate since “it” happened.

THEY NEVER LOVED HIM. THEY ALWAYS THOUGHT HE WAS A BURDEN. AND HE KNEW THAT. MY LITTLE BROTHER KNEW IT EVEN IF WE BOTH PRETENDED HE DIDN’T.

Outside the booth, someone helpless, someone who couldn’t speak, someone...someone likehimneeded my help.

The silence was deafening, suffocating. It was unbearable because I knew.

Even if you didn’t hear a thing, it didn’t mean someone wasn’t in pain.

I swallowed convulsively, knowing what I had to do. I had thought I’d forever be silent, but this – surely this was a good reason to break my vow?