This may take a while to update any of my stories, I"m having a bit of a problem with viruses and spyware. Sorry, but i'll do the best i can.
Chapter 9:
"You held the camera!"
The words rang through the courtroom like the bell atop of the Notre Dame Cathedral. Isabella had something to do with all of this. Elliot, who had been sitting behind Casey, could hardly move from the shock. Fortunately it only lasted a moment.
Isabella seemed to be thinking the same thing as he, as she pushed her way out of the pew and down the aisle. Elliot caught her arm and stopped her dead in her tracks. She turned to face him with a look of utter disbelief. The look he had for her was rage and anger. He pulled her out of the courtroom.
"How dare you treat me like this!" Isabella yelled as Elliot pushed her into a private room somewhere in the courthouse. "You have no right to treat me like this Mr. Stapler!"
"Its Stabler!" Elliot yelled. He stepped closer to her. He had to use all of his will power not to punch her right in the face. "What the hell do you think you were doing! Huh! You let Mary Ellen rape Margo, your own daughter!"
"Mary Ellen is my daughter!"
"So is Margo! What she doesn't matter?"
"You don't understand!" Isabella slumped into the nearest chair. "Mary Ellen was five when I had Margo. Any one will tell you, Mary was a problem child. She attacked random students, she harrassed all the little girls in her class. The school told me either I get her help, or they'll kick her out!"
"So you had Margo so Mary Ellen could have someone to take her anger out on!"
"My husband left me! When I brought her home. He said he couldn't see me corrupt another life." She started to cry. Elliot didn't feel any sort of sympathy for her. If anything, he just got angry with her husband for leaving that girl with this woman.
"What's your point?" Isabella looked at him disgusted. As if he was supposed to pity her because she raised two children without a husband. Many women did.
"I was alone with a child of the Devil! I had to do something!"
"So you whored your daughter out to make your life easier!"
"Margo is not my daughter!" Isabella yelled, then became silent, realizing she made a mistake. She caught Elliot's interest.
"What do you mean?" Still she said nothing. "What do you mean?" he said louder, but still, not a sound. Elliot grabbed her by the shoulders and started shaking her. "What the hell do you mean by that!"
"I was a nurse!" She said finally. Elliot let go. She put her head down and continued her story. "I was frustrated trying to take care of Mary Ellen. One night, when I was on," she snapped her fingers a few times searching for the word. "Graveyard shift! A woman in labor ran into the emergency room. She was a beautiful woman, and when that baby was born, I knew that little girl would take after her." Elliot started to understand. "So, I thought, this was my way out. I personally took her to the nursery. But I never went, I went down to the morgue and grabbed a still born baby. They were very similar. And I put the dead baby into the crib and took the living baby home with me. That was when Mark left me."
"You kidnaped a baby to use as your daughter's play toy?"
"I had no other choice!"
"You could have taken her to a shrink, home schooled her, you destroyed an innocent girl's life!" Isabella leapt out of her chair.
"I will not send my daughter to a shrink! There is nothing wrong with her!"
"You're not that smart are you? Your daughter is raping a girl and you taught her how to do it!"
Isabella was fuming. She kept her head high, and Elliot noticed she wasn't the least bit ashamed at what she was saying. "I did nothing wrong."
"In this country, yeah you did," he grabbed her and spun her around.
"How dare you!"
"Isabella Palenti, you're under arrest for kidnaping. You have the right to remain silent."
"What do you mean she's not my mother!" Margo yelled. Elliot had just told her the bad news and she was taking it as well as expected. She was furious.
"I'm sorry." He meant it. He wished he could take back these sixteen years, and put her back with her family. Or at least paid enough attention to see there was something wrong all these years.
"Please tell me your lying!" She searched his eyes for the truth. "Please!" A single tear fell down her cheek.
"Isabella kidnaped you from the hospital she worked at, you were a solution to her problem. She took you to be abused." Margo turned around. Elliot heard a distinct sob.
"Its not true. My mother's cruel, but not that cruel."
"Yes she is, I'm sorry you have to find out like this, but its true. Isabella kidnaped you so Mary Ellen could molest you." Margo turned back towards him shrieking.
"Its not true! You're lying! You're lying!" Elliot grabbed her wrists before she could start punching him. She tried a few more times, still yelling "You're lying!" Finally she slumped against him and just sobbed uncontrollably.
"This can't be happening." She said when she finally started to calm down. "Why me?" Elliot wished he could answer, but he couldn't. He didn't have an answer. Instead he held her close and rubbed her back gently for her.
Wow, I know it was short, but hey! Give me a break, my poor character just got a huge shock. And besides, this story's predecessor, its next to last chapter was shorter than this one. So please R&R, really, it won't kill you. And it's a lot of fun! Really!