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Edward had always been amazed by her, her courage and strength, the way she was fighting to get her life back. And now, he was amazed once again because Bella Swan said she loved him. Not just loved him, like his brothers loved him, or Esme, Alice, or Rosalie loved him, but Bella was in love with him.
"It's time to head back inside," Kate said, frowning. "If it gets too hard, just say the word, okay, Bella?"
She simply nodded, her head still laying against his chest. Kate looked from her to him and smiled before gesturing for them to go back inside. Edward didn't particularly want to go back inside, knowing that she'd only told a very small part of what she had gone through at the hands of Sam Uley, but if Bella could be brave and courage and face her demons, so could he.
When they walked back into the courtroom, Eleazar and Sam Uley both turned and looked right at her. While the first looked almost sympathetic, the latter looked at her with dark, evil desire, and it took all Edward's strength not to jump over the divider and beat his face in, but he didn't because he was better than Sam Uley, and Bella needed him too much.
"Come on, honey," Kate said, placing her hand on Bella's elbow and shifting so that she was standing between her and Sam, who shifted his eyes from Bella to Edward, his lip curling up in anger.
Bella looked over at Edward and smiled, placing her hand on the side of his face. "I love you."
He grinned, knowing everyone around them heard her. "I love you, too, sweetheart."
Bella closed her eyes for a moment, blowing out a deep breath, before she turned and followed Kate, while doing her best to ignore Sam Uley's glare, across the courtroom and back onto the witness stand. Judge Dwyer came back in and settled behind his bench, his eyes flickering from Bella to Sam and Eleazar and then to Kate, who once again had positioned herself so that she was standing between Bella and Sam, doing what she could to protect Bella.
"Everyone have a seat, please," Judge Dwyer ordered, picking up his gavel and striking it, causing Bella to flinch.
While the rest of his family settled in their seats, Edward moved so that he was sitting in the corner again, where she could see him, where she would know he was there, holding her together, keeping her safe.
"Let the record show that the witness, Isabella Swan, has taken her position back on the witness stand," Judge Dwyer said. "Ms. Denali, you may proceed."
"Thank you, your honor." Kate placed her hand on her stomach before she turned back toward Bella. "After you left the house by the water, Bella, you testified that you and the defendant stayed in abandoned buildings, is that correct?"
"Yes," she murmured.
"How many buildings did you stay in?"
"Um, I don't know. A lot. Ten, twenty. Maybe more."
Kate nodded. "Bella, tell the court about the building close to the boats. Tell them about your baby."
Edward saw the way her shoulders tensed as the men and women in the jury box turned and stared at her. He worried that it was too much, that asking Bella about Hope was pushing her further than she was ready for, but there was no going back now. Sam Uley had to go down for what he had done to her, and Bella Swan had to fight back. Her soul depended on it.
—SfH—
He was watching her. She could feel him watching, feel him trying to stop her, trying to own her. She wanted to leave, she wanted Edward's arms around her, to feel his lips pressed against hers, to feel the safety and love he promised her, but she couldn't, not until she told them what he did to her. She had to be strong. She had to be brave. She had to fight.
"I . . . I used to count the days by the sounds of the boats, their horns. Every time I heard them, I knew a new day was starting. When he took me to the building by the boats, my stomach wasn't very big, but it got really, really big and really hard as the days went by. I . . . Sometimes it was hard to breath, especially when I was laying down, and I had to . . . I had to pee a lot." She frowned. "We'd been there for two-hundred, thirty-six days when he left. Said he had stuff to take care of, and if I hadn't been such a bad girl, I could go with him."
"Did he leave you alone like that a lot?" Kate asked.
"He always left me with food and water, but kept the door locked. Said he had to keep me his little secret."
"How long was he gone this time, Bella?"
"Twenty-three days. I was running out of food, and I was cold, so cold I could see my breath," she whimpered, placing her hand on her stomach. "Then the pain came. The pain here in my stomach. I . . . I tried to be quiet, tried to . . . tried not to scream, but it hurt so bad. It felt like I was being ripped in two, and I wanted . . . I wanted it to stop but it didn't."
She closed her eyes, rocking back and forth as her arms wrapped around her torso. "And then I . . . I wet myself. I took off my pants because I didn't want him to get mad when he came back and found out that I had wet myself. He said only bad girls wet themselves, and when I did, he'd . . . he'd rub my face in it."
Kate put her hand up. "He would rub your face in your urine if you peed yourself? Is that what you're telling the court?"
She felt her cheeks turn red as she nodded, her humiliation creeping over her. "I was going to hide them, so I wouldn't get in trouble again, but then the pain got worse, and I felt . . ." Her eyes closed, and she took a slow, deep breath. "I felt so much pressure, and it started to burn, and . . . and when I reached down between my legs, I felt a head coming out. I screamed and screamed as the rest of her came out. I tried to catch her, but she was covered gross stuff and she hit the ground. I picked her up, though, and I held her against me. And she cried and cried, and I was afraid that she was going to get cold because she didn't have clothes on and I didn't have extra clothes for her, so I put her inside my shirt."
Kate smiled. "You kept her safe, didn't you, Bella? You had a beautiful, healthy little girl, and you kept her safe, didn't you?"
She nodded, feeling her tears fall down her face. "I tried to keep her warm, and when she got really fussy, I put my nipple in her mouth because I . . . I remembered my momma telling me that babies need their mommy's breasts to eat. That it was good for them."
"You were a good mom to your baby girl, Bella." Kate took a deep breath. "How many days after she was born did the defendant return?"
"Seven."
"When the defendant returned, Bella, what happened?"
She tightened her arms around herself, feeling her chest heave and her heart racing. "He . . . he took her from me. Said . . . He said I wasn't being a good mommy, that you had to be gentle with babies and I hurt her, but I didn't! I was careful and gentle!" she cried.
"Hey, take a deep breath, Bella," Kate told her, putting her hand up in front of her. She did as Kate said, inhaling through her nose and out her mouth like Marcus had taught her when she was having a panic attack. "Better?"
She nodded. "I was careful with her. I was careful and gentle and he stole her from me. I tried to stop him. I fought back. For the first time since he kidnapped me, I fought back, but he said I was a bad girl, a nothing, a nobody and babies needed good mommies, they needed someone better than a nothing."
"What'd you name your baby, Bella?"
She shifted her eyes to the back of the courtroom, to where Angela and Ben were seated, tears falling down their faces that matched hers. "Hope. I named. . . I named her Hope."
"Why'd you did you name her Hope?"
"Because she was my hope for a better life, a life where I was more than a nobody, a nothing, and since I didn't have a name anymore, I . . . I wanted her to have one, so I named her Hope."
"After the defendant took Hope away, how long was he gone?"
"Not very long," she said, using the back of her hands to wipe away her tears. "Less than a day because I didn't hear the boats again. When he came back, he said we had to leave, that it wasn't safe there anymore."
"Do you know where he took you?"
"We went into the mountains."
"How long did you stay in the mountains, Bella?"
She bit the inside of her lip. "Until . . . until after the . . . the ceremony."
"What ceremony?"
"The . . . the marriage ceremony."
"Objection, your honor," Eleazar said, standing up.
"On what grounds?" Judge Dwyer asked.
"If the witness is going to testify that she and my client were married, any and everything that happened after they were married would fall under spousal privilege."
"Your honor, we are not sanctioning the supposed marriage between the defendant and the witness, just establishing a timeline of events she was made to suffer in the eight years that the defendant held her captive."
Judge Dwyer tilted his head to the side. "You'll have your chance to cross-examine the witness, Mr. Santiago. Your objection is overruled. However, tread lightly, Ms. Denali."
"Yes, your honor." Kate shifted her eyes back to her. "Bella, how long between when you left the building by the boats did the defendant take you to the ceremony?"
"Four hundred and ten days," she whispered, clenching her hands into tight fists.
She had known, of course, that Kate was going to push her on the ceremony, but she hadn't told anyone about that, except for Edward and Marcus, and that was only because Marcus said it was important for her healing to be honest about what he had done to her. Marcus assure her over and over that he wasn't her husband, that he didn't own her, that he didn't have the right to her body the way he claimed to, and she was desperately trying to believe every word of Marcus' claim.
"Bella, I know this is difficult, but can you tell us about the ceremony?"
"After Hope was born, after he took her from me, and we were in the cabin in the mountains, he told me about his heritage. About being a Native American, about their customs and . . . He said they had their pick of wives, and he . . . he picked me. I didn't believe him until . . . until the night he took me to the ritual grounds. There was a large stone table and an archway. And a big hole in the ground with a fire. It was cold outside, and the heat from the fire felt good." She paused. "There were other people there, men, but he told me not to speak unless he told me I could. He said I had to be a good girl, or they'd make him get rid of me."
"Did you know the other men, Bella?"
"No," she said, shaking her head. "But they were like him, Native American. Older than him. He called them the Tribal Council, said they were special."
"What happened next?"
"He made me take my clothes off and put on a white dress. It was cold and I . . . I didn't want to, but I did because I didn't want to get in trouble. And then the council stood around us and they made us recite vows to each other."
"Do you remember the vows, Bella?"
"No."
Kate opened her mouth, closed it, and then asked, "What happened next?"
"He made me take the dress off and lay on top of the stone table, on my stomach," she whimpered, unable to keep her tears from falling. "And then one of the men, the oldest of them, said that since I was now a tribal princess, he was going to give me a . . . a tattoo so that everyone would know who I belonged to."
"Your honor, we would like to introduce these photographs as States evidence 'A' through 'E'." Kate handed the stack of photographs to Judge Dwyer, who flipped through them, nodded, and gestured for the bailiff to give them to the men and women of the jury. Kate waited a moment before she turned back to her. "Did you want a tattoo, Bella?"
"No," she admitted, quickly.
"Bella, after . . . after the man tattooed you, what happened next?"
She closed her eyes, taking another calming breath, in through her nose, out through her mouth. "He . . . He said I had pay the Council the price of admission to the tribe."
"Sam Uley said that you had to pay the Tribal Council the price of admission to become a member of the Quileute Tribe?"
"Yes."
"What was that price, Bella?"
"Having sex with me," she whispered.
"I'm sorry, Miss. Swan, but I need you to speak louder," Judge Dwyer said.
The courtroom was awkwardly quiet, and she could feel everyone watching her, looking at her as she once again and louder said, "Having sex with me. They . . . The Tribal Council took turns . . . having sex with me."
Kate brought her hand up to her chest, placing her palm directly over her heart as she asked, "Bella, did you want to have sex with the three members of the Quileute Tribal Council?"
"No," she cried, tightening her arms around herself and swallowed against the lump in her throat.
"Bella, did you want Sam Uley to crawl into your bedroom window and take you away from your family?"
"No," she cried, shaking her head.
Kate smiled softly. "Bella, tell the court about the night before the police picked you up and took you to the hospital."
She used her shoulder to brush the tears off her cheeks before she said, "He left me alone again, but this time he didn't lock the door. I went outside, without him, because I was hungry. I hadn't . . . I hadn't eaten in almost a week, and I didn't know when he was coming back, if he was coming back. I was hiding in the alley, when I saw a black car come to a stop at a red light. And um, the windows were down and there was music coming out. I don't know why I did it, but when the light turned green, I . . . I ran out in front of it. And, um, the man in the car looked . . . looked at me and I got scared that I was going to get in trouble again, so I ran away, but he followed me. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going, and I found myself at a dead end. When I looked back the man, he . . . he was watching me and he asked if I was okay, if he'd hurt me when he almost hit me with his car," she said, shifting her eyes to Carlisle. "He saved my life that night, and I didn't even know it."
Kate smiled. "I don't have any more questions for the witness, your honor."
"This seems like a good time to pause. Mr. Santiago, we will pick up with your cross-examination tomorrow morning," Judge Dwyer said before he looked at her. "Miss. Swan, you may step down from the witness stand."
She tightened her arms around herself as she stood up, and scooted out. Kate, as she had done before, maneuvered her body so that she stayed between her and him, keeping her promise to keep her safe.
Before she could sit down, Judge Dwyer said, "Court is dismissed until nine a.m., tomorrow morning. Guards, please escort the defendant out of the courtroom."
She turned and watched as the two guards yanked him to his feet, bound his hands in front of him, and started leading him to the back corner of the courtroom. As he had when they brought him into the room, he looked over his shoulder at her, but unlike before, she found herself staring him down until he was pulled out of the room and out of sight.
"Bella, honey," Marcus called, and she looked over at him. "Are you okay?"
She nodded.
"I'm very proud of you, Bella." He placed his hand on her shoulder. "But tomorrow . . . tomorrow is going to be harder, and do you know why?"
She shifted her eyes to Eleazar who had stood and was watching her. "Because tomorrow I fight him."
Thank you for all the AMAZING reviews! This chapter tore my soul apart a lot. Our Bella was so brave, but something tells me Ole Eleazar is going to fight dirty.
