Misguided Truths: Part Two (Misjudged #4) (37 page)

SIX
WEEKS LATER

What I wouldn’t give to have just five minutes alone with that motherfucker. He shouldn’t be allowed to breathe for what he’s done.

It’s the day of Neil’s hearing, and I already took to the stand to give evidence a couple of hours ago. During that time, he kept
his eyes firmly aimed downward. He didn’t even have the balls to look me in the eye when I had to retell and live every single detail about what happened that day. My leg’s jiggling uncontrollably, and my fists are clenched by my sides as I watch Alexis step down from the witness stand.

She did well up there. Really fucking well. Yeah, she was nervous. And, yeah, I could see how much she didn’t wanna be up there, but she stayed strong. I thought she was gonna cry a couple of times, but she didn’t. She held it together. Damn, she’s a lot stronger than I’ve ever given her credit for. 

She takes a seat beside me, in-between me and her father, and when I turn to look at her, I see that she’s looking straight ahead. There’s no emotion over her face. There’s nothing at all.
Good. Don’t let him see how much this is killing you, beautiful
. He doesn’t deserve to see how much pain he caused her. How much he caused us. That motherfucker deserves to die.

We haven’t spoken to each other today. We haven’t been able to. I saw her arrive a little after eight this morning with her father and Diane, but we had to be kept separated until we’d given our evidence. Do I wanna pull her into my arms and make this whole t
hing go away? Of course I do, but I know that I can’t, at least, not yet anyways.

S
he moved into the new house the same weekend that we visited Salem, and yeah, she called me. In fact, she’s been calling me every day since, and we’ve even spent a few evenings together. I offered to cook dinner for her over at my place one time, and she accepted, though I don’t think she’ll be stupid enough to accept such an invitation in the future somehow. Yeah, I burnt it.
Again
. We ended up having a takeout instead. But, I tried. And, I’ll keep trying until I take my last breath if it means I’ll even have the slightest chance to make things up to her.

The judge calls time on the case for a lunch break, and I glance around when I see and hear people beginning to stand and exit through the dif
ferent doors around the room. The whole courtroom is packed. You know who I feel sorry for the most? His parents. They came to watch this whole thing play out. His mom was sobbing, and his dad kept his arm wrapped around her the whole time. I bet they didn’t even recognize their son standing over there.

When I go to stand
, Alexis grabs a hold of my arm and when I look down, I see her shaking her head and still staring directly across the room, “Look,” she tilts her head forward, and when I glance over, I see them taking Neil down some steps in cuffs. “Do you think he has any idea what he did to us?” Her voice quivers, and her eyes snap fully closed for a second.

I sit back down beside her, and lean forward so she can see me when I
go to speak to her, “Listen, he’s up next. It’s not gonna be pretty. He’s gonna be asked about every little detail. They’re gonna go into a lot of things, and I don’t think it would be a good idea if you were here.” She nods, but still doesn’t look at me. “I think you should go home.”

“I’m staying. He hurt me just like he did you. He was my friend. I want to know why he did this, and most importantly, I need to know what happened to my mom.” She answers determinedly, and I can see that she’s already trying to fight back the tears.

“Alexis, you’re six months pregnant. There’s no way in hell that I’m gonna let you witness any of this.”

“I’m not
going anywhere,” she grinds out. She grabs her purse from off of the floor beside her feet, stands, and then heads straight over to meet her father at the top of the stairwell. “How? How are you keeping so calm about all of this?” She asks as she turns around to face me again.

“Me? Trust me, inside I’m burning with rage. But, I don’t want him to see what he did. It’ll make him happy knowing that he got to me
, and I don’t wanna let that happen. You want me to show him how I really feel? Do you? Because I can let my guard down, and I can tell and show him exactly what I’m thinking, but I don’t wanna give him the satisfaction.”

She nods
, and I can see that she’s trying to smile, but she really doesn’t need to try and fool me into believing that she’s okay. I already know that she’s isn’t.

We have an hour before he takes to the stand. Because I only gave evidence just before Alexis, I wasn’t able to see anything else that happened before I went up. There was a couple of witnesses acting against Neil before me, but we’re both none the wiser as to what went down. I guess we’re gonna find out soon enough, because next? Next up is the prosecution, and Neil will be answering their questions.

I really wish that Alexis would go home and wait. It’s not like it’s gonna do her any good in staying here. We’re not even gonna find out how much jail time he’s gonna get. It’ll probably be at least a week before the sentencing hearing takes place.

“There’s a coffee shop next door,” I tell her as we near the entrance doors of the building. “You need to eat something.”

“I’m not hungry.” She says quietly, and now that we’ve stepped out onto the sidewalk and into the daylight, I can see just how exhausted she really is.

”Did you have breakfast this morning?” I whisper, and see her shake her head while her hands rest over her stomach. “Then you’re eating.”

Between me and her father, we managed to persuade Alexis to eat some fruit, though I wasn’t overly happy that she only had an apple and a couple of strawberries. But, I guess that it’s better she had them than nothing at all. We sat in silence for the most part, and I just sat back and watched as she drifted off into her own thoughts.

Both her father and Diane tried to make l
ight conversation, and it got a little awkward when they kept asking about how we’re both getting on in the house they bought for us.

“Go home and I’ll call you,” I plead with her when we’re about to walk back inside the courtroom. “Please, Alexis? This isn’t gonna do you or the baby any good.” I sigh in defeat when she walks straight by me, and I watch as she opens up the door before making her way through to find herself a seat.

This is it. We’re about to find out exactly what happened all those times. Not only has Neil been charged with what he did to me that day down by the lake, he’s also been charged on suspicion of the murder of Alexis’ mom, and Holly. Yeah, you heard right. After all this time, someone actually came forward with a witness statement, and they admitted that Neil was guilty of all of those things. Who? I have no idea. The cops wouldn’t divulge any further information.

Neil’s mom is looking right at me, but when she sees that I see her, she immediately looks away and hangs her head lower. She had pity in her eyes, but in a way, it’s her who deserves to be pitied. Her son, the one she always looked out for, cared for, turned into a complete fucking monster.

I take a couple of deep breaths as the judge introduces the prosecution, and from the corner of my eye, I see Alexis starting to grip her seat with both of her hands. I wish she didn’t choose to stay here for this.

The room is filling up again as I take my seat beside Alexis, and the whole place goes quiet as Neil approaches the stand.

You’re gonna pay for this you fucking son of a bitch.

***

“We’re here,” her father says as soon as he parks the car in the driveway. It’s a little after seven in the evening, and the drive back to her place was quiet to say the least. Diane is sitting up front, and me and Alexis are in the back.

“Alexis?” I reach over and stroke my fingers over her tear streaked cheek, but she doesn’t respond. She just sits there. It’s almost as though she’s oblivious of where she is or that I’m even here.

Out of all of the charges he was up against, he was found guilty on one.
One fucking charge
. The rest? Lack of evidence and conflicting statements got them thrown out of the courtroom. I’m actually quite surprised they didn’t throw me out at one point. You wanna know why? Well, I’ll tell you. That fucking scumbag smirked directly over at Alexis when the prosecution started to ask him questions about what happened the night leading up to her mom’s death. As it turns out, Vinnie was a witness.
For the prosecution.
Yeah, I know. It’s hard to believe, huh? Well, I guess he bargained with them somehow. Neil pleaded not guilty to every single charge, and I suppose they must’ve offered Vinnie a lighter sentence if he was to testify against him. He’s still bound to get time for the crimes he committed, but I’m assuming he won’t get merely as long a time inside as he would’ve had he not helped with a few of the details.

Alexis twists in her seat to face me when her father and Diane climb out of the car, “Did you see the …? Did you see the way he looked at me when …? He … all the times he … I can’t deal with this… I-I-I—”

“Hey, come here,” I release her seatbelt and bring her over to sit on my lap. Even though she’s six months pregnant, she’s still pretty light and I wrap my arms around her waist, bringing her closer to me.

“He hired someone … to … to run her off the road but when she didn’t die from the impact … he went back and made sure … he slit her throat, Brandon. He slit my mom’s throat!” I tighten my grip on her, and pull her head down until she’s resting her face against my chest. She’s crying hard, but I have no idea what I can do to help her. We stay like this for a little while, and when her breaths finally even out and her sobs become lighter, she leans away from me until she’s looking directly into my eyes. “She saw everything. Vinnie told the judge that she was awake! She would’ve known … seen him, and….”

“I’m sorry,” my voice cracks, and the lump in my throat feels like it’s grown to the size of a tennis ball or something, “I’m so sorry.” I tell her, and she rests her forehead against mine before closing her eyes. I stroke my fingers through her hair, over and over again, only stopping when I see the rain starting to hit the windscreen.

“Come on, it’s starting to rain and your father and Diane are waiting by the door,” I tell her, and reach over to open up the door closest to us. “Let’s get you inside.”

“Brandon? Thanks for coming back here.”

“Well, it was pretty obvious when he offered to give us both a ride home that you haven’t told them about us yet, and the fact that he kept asking me questions about the place at lunch, y’know?”

“I’ll tell him … I just—”

“Today’s probably not the best time,” I say, and she nods her head in agreement while lowering her arm and gaze from mine.

As soon as she climbs off of my knee, I follow her up to the house, and take my cell phone out from my pocket when I hear the message tone. It’s Rye, asking if I wanna stay over at the dorm tonight because he doesn’t think that it’d be a good idea for me to be on my own. The dorm? Never again. That part of my life is over now. I never wanna step foot inside the campus again for as long as I live.

He and Alyssa were both sitting in the courtroom throughout the day, but kept themselves at a distance. I think they knew that me and Ale
xis needed to be on our own today.

We head inside and make our way through to the kitchen. I glance around and notice a few new things placed around the room. It’s starting to look more like a home now. There are pictures hanging up on the walls
, and there’s even some flowers placed in the window, “It’s starting to look pretty good in here.”
Shit. Nice job, Brandon
. It’s hard trying to pretend that we’re still together.
Damn I really fucking wish we were.

I notice her eyes dart
toward her father, and a frown starting to form over her lips, “Yeah, I think we’re doing a good job.” she answers, widening her eyes back on me when her father smiles and takes a seat at the wooden table. “I’ll make us some drinks.” She says as she turns around and heads toward the sink.

Diane takes a hold of Paul’s hand
, and I see him give her a small smile while he shakes his head. Poor guy. Poor fucking guy. I turn around when I hear something smash behind me, and see Alexis resting her hands on the side of the sink, her head drooped down low and her whole body shaking. Dodging the broken coffee mug that’s scattered across the tiled floor, I head right over and bring her into me, “Hey, come here.”

“Honey, come over here. Brandon can take care of the drinks,” her father calls, and the sadness in his tone is evident. What? I can’t even console her now? Is it so wrong that I wanna be the one to comfort her in all of this?

She walks straight by me, and my eyes start to glaze when I see the two of them holding each other tight, with a stray tear running down his left cheek.

“I’ll give you a hand,” Diane offers as she walks over to join me. “Where do you keep the dustpan?”

“I’ll ... um ...” I clear my throat and quickly glance around. “I’ll take care of that.”

“Then which cupboard are the mugs in?”
Oh, hell
. I see Alexis look up from her father’s shoulder and tilt her head over to the right.