BlackCanary98: Jason's secretly insecure and thinks he's not good enough of a boyfriend to Aiden. He can't stand the idea of losing Aiden to someone he thinks is better. And well, Uma just wants to be the one to protect her girlfriend for once instead of the other way around all the time.
Uma's POV
"Umaaaaaa!" I hear Ava shout from upstairs. Gosh, she must be awake. "Uma, whatever you're doing, this isn't the way!"
I hear her struggle out of her ziptied trap. With any luck she'll be too late before she gets out. I hold the stack of papers in my hands in front of the shredder. Jessica must have stolen them from Ace's office. It's a lot of bad stuff in here: Stalker-like photos, emails to my mom, texts to Aiden, notes between friends in class. No wonder she wanted me to destroy everything.
"I'm so sorry, guys," I murmur as I push everything into the shredder. "But I can't let Jessica take away the love of my life."
I feel absolutely guilty for tricking Ava like that, but I knew she'd try to stop me if she knew what I was up to.
"UMA!"
The struggle gets louder. I pack up everything and run for it. Someone calls my cell.
"Hello?"
"Uma? It's Rose. Ava isn't picking up her phone. Is everything alright?"
"Uh, yep. Ava's feeling a little under the weather today, so she can't make it. No need to bring the limo here. I can just walk."
"You sound out of breath, Uma. What's going on?" Rose demands.
"Nothing, Rose! I'll be there soon," I say hastily and hang up. I pick up the pace. My legs burn with the adrenaline. A car pulls up next to me and honks. I whip around and scowl.
"Come now, don't be like that, little cousin. At least Ava will be out of harm's way. I hope it was worth it," Jessica taunts.
"Look, I don't care if we lose or not. Just stop hurting people, alright? You won."
"I only promised I wouldn't hurt Ava, not the others. And trust me, they'll feel my wrath soon."
"Jessie, you can't! They'll hate me forever!" I plead.
"Who's to say they don't already hate you? I mean, you had to seduce Ava to trap her and you went behind your friends' backs just so you wouldn't be lonely. And soon they'll know you'll be the reason why they end up in deep trouble."
"Why are you doing this? You've caused people years worth of trauma, and for what? To make sure your pitiful ass doesn't end up without a damn suitor and you can live the rest of your days in the lap of luxury?"
"Well, yeah. Look, I have one more thing for you to do, and then I might think about letting your friends leave relatively unscathed."
"What now?" I ask in exasperation.
"Just make sure Aiden can't say much during his testimony."
"I-I can't! That would be tampering with the witness."
"I mean, you'd already be in trouble for obstructing justice, so…"
"I know...I just...I didn't want what happened to Aiden to happen to Ava. How broken do you have to be to constantly question your sanity and self-worth?"
"It's too bad you don't believe Ava's strong enough to handle herself."
"I know you tried to manipulate her. And I've seen what you're capable of. I don't want you anywhere near my girlfriend."
"Whatever, Uma. Maybe one day you'll see that this was meant to be and you'll come crawling back to us."
"I'll never be like the rest of the family! NEV-"
The car squeals away, leaving me coughing in a cloud of dust and smoke. God I better find a way to make sure no one gets hurt because of me.
Everyone looks at me suspiciously when I approach.
"Uma, where's Ava?" Rose asks.
"I already told you, she's sick," I stress.
"Well, it's not like Ava to suddenly get sick without any warning. She was fine yesterday," Rose presses, her brown eyes boring holes into my gray ones.
"She seemed fine, but she really wasn't. Look, let's just go inside and get this trial over with," I gasp in exasperation. The others shrug and move on, but Rose keeps her glare fixed on me.
In a quiet but scary voice, she hisses, "Ava's like a sister to me, so if I find out that you did something to her I'll-"
"You'll what? Make more empty threats? I'm not scared of you, Rose."
"You really sound like you have something to hide, Uma. I'm going to find out what."
"You do that," I say dismissively before I remember Jessica's instructions. I look past Rose and see Aiden up ahead, his hand linked with Jason's. It's going to be hard to get him alone for long.I brush past Rose and approach them.
"Hey, Uma," Jason says. "What's up?"
"Would you mind if I borrowed Aiden for a few minutes? I've got a little advice for him."
They look at each other, then back at me. Jason shrugs.
"I, uh...I'll stand over here from a safe distance," Jay stammers, moving away so he's out of earshot, but not out of sight.
"So...what did you want to tell me?" he asks.
"I just wanted to tell you how brave you are for doing this, Aiden," I say, clasping my hands over his. He blushes from embarrassment.
"I-it's nothing really," he murmurs. "Anyone else c-could've done the same."
"It must be so hard having to testify in front of a jury, against someone who made your life hell for the past year."
He frowns.
"I…"
"Not to mention that this is probably the first time a domestic violence charge has been brought by a male against a female, albeit a rich one."
"Uh...I mean…"
"And then there's the chance that people may call you a liar or a weakling...or maybe...say that you wanted this to happen."
Aiden's gone completely pale, his hands trembling.
"I...I, uh...I didn't…"
"Not to mention what this will mean for your reputation and your friends' no matter what happens."
"..." He's breathing shakily, sweat beading at his forehead.
"But I'm sure you know what you're doing, so...good luck!" I say. Aiden takes off in Jason's direction. Seconds later, Jason storms up to me.
"What the hell did you say to him?" he demands.
"I only said he was brave for doing this and good luck. Not my fault he was nervous."
"Really? He was fine before I left him with you."
"Look, there's a lot at stake here. I just wanted to let him know that."
"We already knew that. If you're not going to help, then just go."
Jason angrily shakes his head and turns away with Aiden in tow. Hopefully, this'll be enough to convince Aiden not to testify.
Aiden's POV
"You'll be fine, just breathe...breathe," Jason says softly, his hand over my chest. "Don't worry, no one's gonna judge you."
Jay took me to a more secluded area away from the others. I'm just a few seconds away from a complete meltdown.
"T-they w-won't believe me." I want to curl up into the tiniest ball possible and bury myself underground.
"They will, baby. I promise they will."
"Is it too late to back out now?" I ask, lowering my head. I know, I sound pathetic. But after a month of waiting, the moment is here, and I don't think I'm ready. I don't want to let anyone down, but I don't want anyone to get hurt because of me.
"Aiden, look at me," he orders, cupping my face. I do as he says, looking into his piercing blue eyes. "If you don't bring her down now, we'll never have another chance to do so. And even if you can get away from her, that's just gonna make her do this to someone else. I know I'm asking a lot, but Rose needs you to do this. I need you to do this. Please."
Tears silently streaking down my face, I nod slowly. Jay hugs me tightly, stroking my hair.
"Jay...I'm more scared than I've ever been before. Our lives are never going to be the same, regardless of the outcome."
"Yeah...but guess what?"
"What?"
"I'm gonna be right here with you."
"Ok...I'm ready to go in," I say somewhat firmly. Jay kisses me tenderly, then presses his forehead to mine. We stay like this for a while. He takes my hand and leads me inside. Uma is nowhere to be seen.
"You ok, Aiden?" Ace asks.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Let's do this," I say, squeezing Jason's hand.
"Prosecution calls Aiden Zhou to the stand," Ethan says. Taking a slow breath, I rise and approach the stand.
"Aiden Zhou, do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help me God?"
"Yes. I do."
"Ok Aiden, when did your conflict with Jessica start?"
"Objection! I feel Mr. Blake has too close a relationship with his client to properly conduct a questioning. Being that he continuously thinks its ok to refer to his and my clients by their first names." Mr. Price is really grating on my nerves, and I can tell the judge feels the same way.
"Ok, you know what, ? You make another ridiculous objection and I'll hold you in contempt of court. Answer the question, Mr. Zhou," The judge says.
"It started...a few weeks after Jessica and I started dating. I made the mistake of mentioning my ex girlfriend Rose a few times. One day she snapped and slapped me hard in the face. It only got worse from there. Hitting, kicking, slapping...I tended to hide my bruises well because I usually wore long sleeved shirts anyway, but the day Rose found out, I was quite careless. I always thought I'd leave her and be done forever...but everytime I found myself going back to her, thinking that somehow, someway, she loved me. Obviously I know that's not true now."
"Can you describe the latest attack?"
"Y-yeah...She faked my then boyfriend's death so she could kidnap me and my friends. Then she tried to get my parents to sign a contract to make me engaged to her by drugging me. It was hard to tell between reality and delusion for a few hours before I was healed. At some point, she cornered me. She grabbed my arm hard. We heard police sirens. Her grip tightened. I called for help That's when she tried to strangle me...again. I struggled to breathe, like I was forcibly being held underwater. If it wasn't for my friends showing up when they did, I don't know what could've happened to me. I still have the bruises from it."
Ethan asks me to lower my shirt collar a little. I do so, wincing a little. The jury collectively moans and winces at the sight. It must look even worse than I thought. Ethan asks me a few more questions about my history with Jessica before taking his seat. Mr. Price approaches. I make eye contact with Jason.
"Remember us," he mouths. I feel comforted by this and sit up a little straighter.
"Mr. Zhou, when you say that my client strangled you, you said this was after you were allegedly drugged, correct?"
"Yeah."
"If she supposedly did drug you, how were you sure you were being choked and not hallucinating?"
"Because I could feel it. I felt her fingers wrapped around my neck, how they pressed into my throat, preventing me from breathing. I was panicking, not sure if she intended to kill me or not."
"And why didn't you fight back? My client is 5'3. You are 5'5"."
"I'd like to see you try to fight back with your arms and legs pinned down."
A few members of the jury chuckle. Mr. Price turns red.
"Well, if things were so bad as you claim, why did you stay with my client for a year?"
"Well...I thought I loved her. And well, she threatened to hurt people that I cared about if I tried to leave her."
"Then what's this about my client offering to get you enrolled in the prestigious Juilliard?"
"Well, that was part of the reason as well. My dreams were just ahead of me, and she really had the power to do it. But even Juilliard wasn't enough to convince me to stay after I caught her cheating on me."
"Zhou, how do we know you're telling the truth and not being bribed again?"
"Because my boyfriend almost died because of her!" My voice reverberates around the courtroom. "She outed him to the entire town and got beat up so badly I wasn't sure he'd make it. That day, when those men attacked him, I held his limp body in my hands. I feared that I'd never again see those electric blue eyes of his...that I'd have to go back to…"
I can't finish my last sentence. The lump in my throat is too painful.
"Uh...no further questions your honor," Mr. Price mutters. The judge lets me leave the courtroom. Jason follows suit.
"You did it, baby," he whispers, hugging me from behind.
"I just hope it was the right thing to do," I say. "Jay...I honestly thought I lost you that day. I thought I was the reason you died because I didn't do anything to help you."
"I lost my head. I knew picking a fight with those idiots would lead to trouble. At least I know how much you care."
"Duh. I always did. You were just being ridiculous yesterday."
"I know."
"Do we have to stay here until after Jessica's testimony?" I ask. "At this point I could really use a nap."
Jay laughs.
"Ethan will call us back when it's time for the verdict, so I guess we can relax on the park bench for now.
We walk outside toward the park and find a bench. I lean back into the comfort of Jay's body and drift off to sleep.
Although I could swear I saw two blurred figures, one red and one blue, race by before I do.
