ENDING B
CHAPTER 9
The doctor spent some time with Jade and finally made her react, they were all waiting outside and then he called them so they immediately walked into the office and saw Jade sitting on the bed looking down.
"Oh honey, how do you feel?" Melissa asked but Jade ignored her.
"I'm so glad we got there in time" Richard commented.
"Did he...?" Tori asked nervously, she didn't know how to ask her but they needed to know. "You know, did he..."
"Rape me again?" Jade asked as she looked up at Tori and she nodded sadly. "Do you realize how embarrassing this is? I want you all to leave"
"Jade, please" Beck said.
"The answer is no, he was about to but he didn't have much time. However, he spent a lot of time making me feel just as abused, is that what you wanted to know? Well, it happened now get the hell out, I don't want to see you" Jade informed and her mother hugged her but she pushed her away. "Stop it, Melissa"
"Jade, don't talk to your mother like that, she is just trying to help you" Richard affirmed.
"She could've done that a long time ago but she didn't and here we are now, I'm in a damn clinic for crazy people because her fiancée raped and almost murdered me and the worst part is that he just did it all over again, did she stop him? No, nobody did" Jade responded angrily. "Get out, GET OUT!"
"Please forgive me, honey; I didn't know he would..." Melissa said with tears in her eyes.
"Of course you did, I told you... I told you many times but you let it go, you encouraged him to do it" Jade said.
"What happened? I thought you'd forgiven me" Melissa commented.
"I thought so too but today when I was in my bed, unable to move, unable to speak, just seeing him laugh and hearing his voice, feeling him all over me again was enough to realize I hate you" Jade informed and Melissa looked at her shocked and sad, Jade turned to her and took a deep breath. "Yes, mommy" she said with irony. "I hate you just as much as I hate Nick so if you really wanna help me now, get out"
"Jade" Richard said coldly.
"You too, go buy Brittany all the jewelry she wants like you always do and leave me alone, it's too late to remember I exist" Jade affirmed and he looked at Melissa, they knew she was really hurt so they decided not to keep pushing and left the room.
"Jade, don't you think you were a little harsh on them?" Robbie asked.
"That's not your problem" Jade responded coldly.
"Jade, I get you are upset but why the sudden change? You weren't so angry last time" Tori commented.
"I'm so sorry this happened, I should've been there..." Beck said sadly. "I'm not gonna leave you alone ever again"
"Nobody is asking you to stay" Jade said coldly.
"I know but I want to stay, I do and it's because I love you" Beck affirmed.
"You shouldn't have come, you shouldn't have brought me to the hospital that day in the first place, things would be much better if I had died like I was supposed to" Jade commented emotionlessly.
"Stop saying that, Jade, we are all happy you're alive" Tori responded.
"Well, I am not" Jade said, meanwhile Nick was getting arrested in Jade's room and her parents were just watching him, they wanted to strangle him but he was not worth it and they wanted him to have a proper punishment, they knew prison would do that for them.
"There he goes" Andre said as he and the rest of Jade's friends walked up to her parents.
"I want to kill him" Beck added.
"He's not worth it, son and besides, people in jail will make him regret everything he did" Jade's father commented.
"How's Jade?" Melissa questioned.
"She kicked us out; she needs some time to assimilate what happened" Beck responded.
"I hope she forgives me one day but I don't know how, what I did to her was horrible" Melissa said sincerely.
"She didn't mean what she said, she's just hurt and it's understandable... I mean that man molested her and almost raped her again, she is angry and she needed to get that anger out on someone and unfortunately, she chose you" Andre commented and they sighed sadly.
"She is right to choose us" Her father responded. "We failed her" He said and Jade's friends didn't know what to respond, it was true after all.
Jade and the doctor spoke for about two hours in his office while Jade's parents and friends waited in one of the living rooms of the clinic. "They've been in that office for too long" Melissa said anxiously.
"He is trying to make her feel better, Melissa, if they have to be in that office until tomorrow for her to be okay so be it" Jade's father said seriously.
"Here they come" Cat informed when she saw Jade and her doctor walking down the hall towards them.
"Jade…" Tori said when she turned around and everyone stood up.
"Jade and I have been talking and she wants to say something, right Jade?" The doctor said and she took a breath before nodding.
"I…I'm…" Jade started but she was having hard time saying it. "I'm sorry" She finally muttered and her mother immediately hugged her.
"You have nothing to be sorry about, baby" Melissa responded and Jade's eyes quickly filled up with tears, she was too sensitive that day and she couldn't help to cry. "Oh honey…" She said and hugged her even tighter so Jade hugged her back.
"Mom!" Jade said and her father hugged them both because he didn't want to make them break the hug. Everyone else was just staring at them and smiling sadly, they were happy that Jade had reacted but the situation was still heartbreaking and upsetting.
After several seconds they finally broke the hug and Jade's parents smiled at her. "We are leaving right now" Her father informed.
"I'm not going back to that house" Jade responded.
"Indeed, you're not, you and your mom will stay in my old apartment…They clean it three times a week so it's ready for you to stay there for as long as you need, sweetheart" Mr. West informed.
"Really?" Melissa questioned and he nodded.
"Absolutely, she won't stay in this place any longer" Jade's father affirmed. "But don't worry, Jade, I'm going to make sure that every single person who had to do with this rots in a cell for the rest of their lives just like that bastard"
"Where is he?" Jade questioned.
"In a cell, he got arrested" Beck informed and she exhaled relieved. "He won't hurt you again"
"She still needs to take therapy so you must bring her here once a week" The doctor informed and Jade's parents nodded.
"You'll see things are going to be so much better, honey" Melissa said sweetly and Jade took a breath as she tried to smile a little but she was still sad so it was hard.
They left the clinic and Jade and her mom went to Richard's apartment as they'd been told to. "When will I have to testify?" Jade asked a few days later when her parents and friends were there.
"Soon, probably in a week" Her father answered and she nodded.
"Honey, are you sure you're ready?" Melissa asked.
"I don't have a choice, do I? He can't walk away with what he did to me" Jade affirmed, rage and anger dripping from her voice.
"He won't, Jade, I can assure you that" Richard responded and she nodded.
"I'm ready"
A couple of weeks after that the trial took place and Jade had to testify. "Okay, Miss West, tell us, how was your relationship with the defendant?" Mr. West asked.
"He was my mom's boyfriend" Jade responded.
"Was he usually in your house?" He questioned.
"He basically lived there, he was in the house more time than my mom" Jade commented.
"And how did he treat you?" Richard asked.
"He was always harassing me, he tried to touch me and kiss me and kept telling me all sorts of disgusting things, sometimes he even got violent. I always tried to stay out of the house while my mom was not there but whenever he caught me, it was horrible" Jade responded.
"And why didn't you denounce him?" He asked.
"I told my mom but she didn't believe me and I didn't have proofs so I thought telling the police would be just as useless" Jade explained.
"But now you have them, don't you? Tell us what happened that night" Her father demanded and Jade took a deep breath.
"I was home alone because he sent my mom to New York and he was supposed to be in San Diego, I was working on a school play with my friends on video chat but then they fell asleep so I was left alone." Jade began. "But then he suddenly appeared and he started harassing me as usual but then he took it to a whole new level, I realized he wasn't going to leave so I fought him but he won…he beat me up and then he…he" She stopped to take a breath and continued. "He raped me, he was extremely violent and he tortured me in my room all night before he raped me for the second time and drugged me. I passed out and when I woke up I was in a hospital"
"He drugged Jade West, raped her for the second time that night and then proceeded to try to fake her suicide. "Mr. West explained. "What happened when you woke up from the coma the defendant put you on?"
"He was there like nothing had happened and everyone was asking me why I had done it, it was confusing but then I slowly understood" Jade responded.
"And why didn't you accuse him right away?" He asked.
"Because he threatened me and I had no proofs, I'd been showered several times by the time I woke up" Jade explained.
"Nothing further" Mr. West said and Nick's lawyer took the word.
"So Miss West, you just said that my client harassed you to the point where you had to be out of your house, right?" He asked and she nodded.
"Yes"
"Can someone confirm you weren't there?" He questioned and she stared at him confused.
"What? No, I was usually alone…" Jade answered.
"How can we be sure that you didn't stay in the house seducing my client?" He questioned and she got even more confused. "You've never liked the idea of your mom dating someone, right? You did something very similar when you were thirteen, can you talk to us about it?" He demanded and Melissa's eyes immediately wide opened just like Jade's. Mr. West and Jade's friends had no idea what Jade had done so they didn't understand why he was asking her that.
"Objection, relevance!" Mr. West said.
"Believe me, your honor, this is very important to this case" The lawyer said and the judge nodded.
"Allowed, answer the question, Miss West" The judge ordered and Jade looked at her mother nervously. Melissa looked back at her mortified but nodded trying to smile.
"What is it? Why is she so nervous?" Beck asked Melissa curiously and she sighed.
"Um…" She started but then Jade finally started speaking.
"A few years ago my mom started dating Carlos, he was very nice but I didn't like him" Jade began. "I felt he was taking my mom's attention away from me so I started doing some things to make them fight and break up" She said.
"What kind of things exactly?" He asked and she looked down.
"At first I tried things like taking stuff out of his wallet and putting it in my mom's purse to make it seem she went through his things without permission" Jade said.
"But it didn't work, did it? He barely even noticed, right?" He asked and she nodded. "So what did you next?" The lawyer questioned.
"I flirted with him…" Jade said looking down ashamedly and her friends' mouths dropped open just like Richard's.
"You, a thirteen year old with no experience, flirted with a grown man only to ruin your mother's relationship" The lawyer said and she nodded.
"Yes" She said embarrassed.
"And what happened then?" He questioned.
"At first he was confused, he didn't understand what I was doing but I kept doing it until he realized I wasn't kidding" Jade confessed. "Then he was mad, he told me how wrong I was to be doing that but yet he wouldn't tell mom because he knew she would yell at me"
"And what did you do next?" The lawyer questioned.
"I insisted and I went further" Jade responded ashamedly. "I didn't mean it to happen, I swear but I thought that if my mom found us she would go nuts on him"
"What did you do?" The lawyer asked again and Jade looked down as her eyes filled with some tears. "What did you do, Miss West? Tell us!"
"I went to his room, took most of my clothes off and climbed into bed so he would see me there when he got out of the shower and my mom would find us when she got back from work" Jade said with a tear streaming down her face.
Beck and everyone else couldn't believe what they were hearing, it was crazy to think Jade would do such a thing and they suddenly could understand why Melissa hadn't believed her.
"And what ended up happening that day?" The lawyer asked, Melissa was just watching mortified and Nick was smiling happily.
"He came out and he saw me almost naked on the bed, I smiled at him and told him to…play with me" Jade said ashamedly and shook her head. "I swear it wasn't for real, I knew my mom was coming" She said trying to justify herself.
"Go on" The lawyer demanded.
"He got extremely angry, he said I was sick and that he wasn't pedophile but i tried to touch him so he started shaking me and then my mom entered the room" Jade said. "At first she understood what I wanted her to understand and I made it worse by crying and telling her that he was trying to rape me" She confessed and Beck and Tori looked at each other surprised while Richard turned to Melissa just as shocked. "Carlos was going mad, he started telling her all the things I'd been doing and he started getting a little violent and screaming so I got scared and confessed the truth, however, they knew it would never work because she didn't fully trust him and he hated me so they broke up" Jade finished with two tears streaming down her cheeks and then looked at Beck, who was just staring at her shocked.
"That sounds VERY, VERY similar to your other story, doesn't it? You just switched the roles" The lawyer chuckled and she shook her head.
"No, it's different, I never flirted with Nick…he harassed me, even Tori saw it" Jade affirmed.
"You can't prove that, as far as we know you could have been in your house the whole time making sexual insinuations to my client, I think we all can see the kind of girl you are" The lawyer said and Mr. West stood up.
"Objection!" He shouted.
"Watch your words, lawyer" The judge said.
"I apologize, I just think it's funny that we are taking this case seriously, we are clearly dealing with a long term promiscuous pathological liar" He affirmed as he stared at her and she shook her head with tears in her eyes, he was owning her and she knew it. "You are such a good manipulator, you spent months seducing your mother's boyfriend trying to destroy their relationship just like when you were younger. The difference is that you're not a kid anymore and after all that time my client finally gave in to your proposals but then you decided you did not like him anymore which obviously made him confused, maybe he thought you were kidding when you said no because you'd spent the previous year begging him to sleep with you, isn't that right?" He affirmed, Jade was just listening with lots of tears streaming down her face as she shook her head several times.
"Objection!" Richard exclaimed.
"Denied, answer the question, Miss West" The judge ordered.
"No! I never wanted that, I didn't flirt with him…not even once" Jade affirmed. "How can you be blaming me for it? He tried to kill me to make sure I didn't talk!"
"Yes, that's true, after he realized you actually meant it when you said no he panicked and thought the only way to escape an UNFAIR punishment because of a perverted girl was by killing her, which of course wasn't right but I think we should consider the facts when deciding his fate" The lawyer commented.
"I'm not lying" Jade affirmed.
"Okay let's go back to when you woke up after it all happened, you say you didn't denounce him because he threatened you, what did he say? That he would tell everyone the truth about you? That's it, right? You were afraid he would tell everyone what a whore you really are" He said and she looked down.
"LAWYER!" The judge shouted angrily. "No insults allowed in my court"
"I'm really sorry, your honor, it just makes me angry to see how far a person can go to get what she wants" The lawyer responded. "Jade West knows no limits, she's said it herself…if she was capable of seducing a man when she was thirteen, what can we expect now that she is eighteen? She could be capable of openly seducing her mom's boyfriend, teasing him to have sex with her and then suddenly deciding to become the victim of the situation, all in order to ruin her mother's relationship and this man's life. This girl right here" He said and pointed to Jade. "Is not the victim she wants you to believe she is, she is nothing but a bad hearted promiscuous pathological liar, to say the least" He finished.
"You may go back to your seat" The judge said and Jade immediately walked back to her seat looking down with lots of tears running down her face.
"Oh baby, it's okay" Melissa said and hugged her daughter.
"I ruined it, he is gonna be free" Jade commented mortified.
"No, darling, your father will fix it" Melissa responded.
"Excuse me, your honor, I think I want to remind everyone something important" Mr. West said and stood up.
"I understand this case is important to you because she is your daughter but you had your chance to talk" The judge said.
"This is important, it'll be quick, your honor" He insisted and the judge nodded.
"First, let me remind you that this man was caught by the police after attempting to rape and murder Jade West again a couple of weeks ago, he didn't like to know she was alive because he raped her and he knows it" Mr. West commented.
"And second, I don't know if you remember this but there's an actual footage of what happened that night, it was recorded from her computer and it clearly shows she did not want anything to do with him" Mr. West affirmed. "He even talks about how she kept rejecting him so what this man said about Jade West seducing him to the point of madness is ridiculous, please watch by yourselves the video and decide who the real victim is"
"Alright, the members of the jury shall analyze all the evidence and come to a conclusion tomorrow" The judge said. "Until then, the defendant remains"
Jade walked out of the court room with her mom followed by her friends and lastly her father. There was awkward silence for about two minutes and Jade was too ashamed to speak but she finally had to.
"Come on, tell me what you think after hearing what I did" Jade said to everyone but especially to Beck. "Do you believe I caused it?" She asked and they looked at each other so a couple of tears came out of her eyes. "Okay…I think I should go"
"Wait, no, we don't think you caused it" Beck affirmed. "I mean, it was shocking to hear what you did back then but you've changed and we saw what happened, don't forget it"
"He is right, Jade, we would never doubt it…we saw it" Tori added. "But why didn't you tell me what you'd done? I would have understood your mom's point of view then, we all would have"
"Because I know how messed up it is and I am aware that it'd be hard to believe I was being harassed after what I did" Jade responded.
"I would have still believed you but anyway, that's in the past, Jade" Tori said.
"She is right, honey, it happened long time ago and what you did then does not justify any of the things that animal did" Richard affirmed. "Even if you had a record of men you've seduced and slept with, which I know you don't, but even if you did, it wouldn't give any man the right to force you to do anything so don't feel guilty over that. You didn't cause it"
"Exactly, baby, so don't cry" Melissa said and wiped Jade's tears away.
Next day everyone showed up at court to hear the jury's resolution, Beck was holding Jade's hand the whole time and everyone was anxiously waiting to hear he was guilty.
"On the charge of sexual harassment, how do you find the defendant?" The judge asked.
"Not guilty" The person of the jury said and Jade looked down sadly while Nick smiled feeling victorious.
"On the charge of rape, how do you find the defendant?" The judge asked.
"Guilty" The person said and Jade felt relieved, Beck hugged her and she smiled gladly while Nick looked down upset.
"On the charge of attempt of murder on the first degree, how do you find the defendant?" The judge asked.
"We find the defendant guilty, your honor" The person informed and everyone smiled happily.
"Okay, the sentence is to be dictated tomorrow" The judge simply informed and the session was over.
"Yay you won!" Tori said as she hugged Jade right outside the room and Jade hugged her back, she was so happy.
"I got so scared when they said not guilty" Jade confessed.
"Don't worry, darling, he won't see light again…he was found guilty on the biggest charges" Her father commented.
"It's over, Jade, finally over" Beck said and she nodded smiling as he put his arm around her shoulders.
"Now, what about some lunch and movies to celebrate our winning?" Melissa suggested.
"That's a wonderful idea" Richard responded.
"Yeah, let's go" Jade said and they all walked out of the court happily.
Nick was sentenced to fifty years which meant he would stay in there forever, as usual, when he got to prison everyone learnt what he had done and he went through the same Jade did but ten times worse and much more often.
Jade, on the other hand, continued going to therapy and recovered her life after all, she and Beck became even closer than they were before and the same happened with Tori; even though they still had their moments, Jade knew she could count on Tori no matter what happened between them.
Melissa bought a new house just for her and Jade and she became a lot closer to her daughter, they were friends and Jade could finally trust her. Richard divorced from Brittany and also started paying more attention to Jade, he regretted not doing it in time so he spent every moment he could with her.
Nick had been a horrible event in Jade's life but things slowly fell back into place and her life went on much better than expected…
Yay happy ending (B)
I hope you liked it, guys :)
Do not forget to review!
Remember there are still three chapters left of ending A.