The next day at class I had been running late. I met Annalise at the door and she eyed me a moment before speaking, "I suspect Bonnie came around to your house last night, yes?"
I nodded slowly, I knew she'd been told of my behavior. She must have been. "Yes...I'm...sorry."
Her eyebrows furrowed. "For what?"
Or maybe not. I was about to explain myself before she quickly waved me off. "Whatever, I don't care, but we're both late for class, so let's just go, shall we?"
I nodded in agreement. She opened the door, allowing me to slip passed her. Connor eyed me strangely as I hurriedly pushed my way through the isle and sat next to him.
"How did you not come in here dead?" He whispered.
I shrugged. "Because she didn't kill me."
Annalise set her bags down and removed her jacket before speaking. "The question I'm most often asked as a defense attorney, is if I can tell if my clients are innocent, or guilty. And my answer is always the same. I don't care. And it's not because I'm heartless, although that's up for debate."
My eyes widened as I inhaled sharply at her little comment.
"But because my clients, like all of us here in this room, lie. And that makes them unknowable. Take Ms. King for example. Are you really who you say you are? Extra details we're unaware of, skeletons buried deep in the closet. Maybe your family is apart of the mafia." She raised her eyebrows, and people chuckled around the room, clearly thinking it was a joke. I was sure Bonnie had mentioned my behavior toward her last night to Annalise, otherwise she would most certainly not be singling me out like this.
My face dropped and I stared at her before swallowing. "I don't care whether or not you believe me, but I am who I say I am, and no, I have no criminal record, and I am not apart of the mafia."
She smirked at me, knowing I had lied. I did have skeletons buried in my closet, although she was under the assumption I was going to tell her about them. She was in fact, wrong.
"Look around you. At the quiet girl you share notes with, a cute guy you have a crush on, the gunner who talks too much in class. And ask yourselves, do you know who anyone truly is? Your instincts better be good, or you'll find yourselves choosing the wrong people to make a study group with, to sleep with, or even marry. Just ask Margery St. Vincent. Ere to her families million dollar department store fortune, until, she was stabbed sixteen times in the master bedroom of her Gladwin mansion. The alleged killer? Her husband of course. Max St. Vincent." She said stated. "Today, six of you will be coming with me to meet Mr. St. Vincent in his home today. I hope to see you all there, on time. Four on the dot, an hour after all of your classes end. You know who you are. Now, let's move on."
Connor looked over at me, his eyebrows furrowed. "What's she mean by six?"
"Mind giving me a ride?" I whispered.
His eyes widened, a smile appearing on his face. "What? How? Why?"
"Tell you later." I smiled back, returning my gaze to Annalise.
As usual, after the bell rang, we sat in our seats until everyone passed us.
"So, explain!" He said excitedly.
"Bonnie came to my house last night. She said Annalise changed her mind, that I was talented, and she wanted me." I shrugged.
"And you're sitting there acting like this isn't amazing news." He said, clearly surprised by my reaction.
"I just...don't want to get my hopes up. She could change her mind again, who knows at this point. I just want to go, and prove how well I can perform." I stated.
"She wont change her mind again, because you're too good for that. Trust me." He said. "I still can't figure out why she chose Wait List over you in the first place. Did the lady tell you?"
"It doesn't matter, right? There I'll be." I sat up when I noticed the last few students piling out of the classroom. I grabbed my bag, and slung it over my shoulder.
We both began to walk down the stairs as Frank and Bonnie entered the classroom, walking to meet Annalise at her desk. Bonnie and I made eye contact and I pursed my lips tightly, settling my eyes instead on the big doors. "Maybe we can get something to eat first, before going to his house? I'll pay."
"Sure. Thanks, I'm slightly broke." He laughed, and I laughed as well, ignoring the intense staring Bonnie was doing at the back of my head.
The Gladwin mansion was of course gorgeous, I mean come on. It's a mansion, why wouldn't it be? It was clearly very well kept, although the dead, taxidermy animals were giving me the creeps. I turned around just to have one right in my face and grimaced. Connor snorted at my reaction and pulling me along by the hand.
"I met Margery in Paris, shopping for my daughter Eloise's fourth birthday. My wife had just passed, and I needed something...special. When Margery saw me struggling to speak to the owner in French, well, the minute she opened her mouth to translate, I knew this was the woman for me. And still, twenty years later, she is still the only woman who knew how to make me happy. Well, as anyone can be happy in an institution as barbaric as marriage, of course, don't you agree, Ms. Keating?" Stated St. Vincent.
"Let's keep it moving." Annalise ordered.
His eyebrows raised as he turned back around, and rolled back two sets of doors. It opened to a large master bedroom. The bed in front of us was naked, stripped of it's sheets, but blood stained the mattress. Red against white clashed terribly, and told a dark, morbid, sadistic story.
"I asked Max to preserve the crime scene until after the trial was over. You never know what forensic clues you can find later." Annalise said.
I turned my head, and once again horns and dead animal faces were up in my face. I rolled my eyes as I heard Max speak,
"Well, the room needed some color anyway."
I and Connor made eye contact, shock a very clear emotion to the both of us.
"Look around, take photos, be the fresh eyes we need to help this case." Annalise said.
I pulled out my phone and began to snap pictures. Then, I walked closer to the bed. My eyebrows furrowed at the blood stains, and where they were located. I returned my gaze back to the dead animals, and then back to the bed. Two things did not make much sense...
"I need a volunteer." He clasped his hands together.
I looked around, and everyone refused to step up, so I did.
"Aw, wonderful. You're prettier than my wife."
I grimaced at the gross compliment. He lead me to the bed, and with a smile pushed my down on it, I grimaced from the pressure he'd just put on my shoulders which were throbbing from the bruises and gouges. "On the bed, now."
Shit. I laid down normally, trying to avoid the copious amounts of blood.
"The forensic reports claim that Margery was in bed reading." He walked around, coming to lay beside me.
Shit.
"When I joined her with-" He glanced down at my lanyard, a pen dangled from it. "Ah, your pen." He grabbed it in his hands, removing the cap and taking it in his hands. "the knife, which I hid, like this." He hid it behind his thigh.
Shit.
"Then," he got closer to my body and my heart began to race rapidly, "then, I pretended to initiate sexual relations." His face was dangerously close to mine and I began to receive flash backs in my head. My heart still racing at a rapid pace. "And just as I was about to kiss, I struck." He slammed his fist on my shoulder and I almost screamed in horrible pain, but I did not.
"But missed, hitting the carotid artery, which was now squirting like a loose fire hose all against the ceiling and the wall. So then I struck again, number two," another blow and I cringed, tears stinging my eyes. "Followed by number three, here," again, "four," again, "five," again, "six-"
"We get the point." I spat, a few tears trickling down my cheeks.
He pulled back. "Oh. I apologize. Sometimes I forget how fragile a woman can be..."
I sucked in an unsteady breath and wiped the tears from my face as I pushed him off of me and sat up, pulling my shirt down. Bonnie sent me a concerned glance, which I ignored. Connor stared at me with a furrowed brow. "You alright?" He asked.
"I'm fine." I said harshly.
"Well...that's the prosecutions theory." Annalise went on.
"Theory." He chuckled. "Good luck proving that. Right?"
Sighing, I turned around and scratched my forehead, leaning against Connor for support. I was beginning to feel very weak.
"That will be all Mr. St. Vincent. We'll be on our way now." Annalise stated.
"Thank you. And a special thank you, Ms..."
I turned my head to look at him. "King."
"Ms. King. You were a wonderful volunteer. Although, I do immensely apologize for the apparent pain I've put you in." He said. It was sincere.
I nodded. "Right."
We left his house, and we all began to bicker.
"He was beating down on you hard." Michaela said to me. "Hard enough to make you cry, and he was so getting off on it."
"Ew." I rolled my eyes. "Okay. That's great, thanks for sharing."
"All I'm saying is that he seems pretty guilty to me." She said.
"Whatever." I said. "Does it even matter? We do whatever plea he takes. Guilty, or not guilty. It doesn't really matter what truly happened. Does it?"
She eyed me for a moment before Annalise spoke.
"Ms. King is correct. Stop analyzing our client, Ms. Pratt, he is pleading not guilty and that is how you should look at him. Follow me back to my house, would you?" She walked off to her car, so I followed Connor to his.
"You okay?" He asked, pressing a hand to my back.
I nodded. "Yeah. Just...hurt. That's all."
He wasn't convinced.
Thanks again to Elminnie for reviewing again! Ikr, Leo's being put through the ringer.
-Sam
