Stef wakes me up at the crack of dawn a week later, I'm surprised I managed to sleep at all. I've been up all night most nights.
"Hey sweetie, get dressed and come downstairs," She whispers, trying not to wake the others.
"Okay, is everything okay?" I whisper back, sitting up.
"It's fine, I'll explain when you come down. Put on something smart."
"Sure, give me five minutes." She leaves, and I rush to get off Mariana's pajamas and I put on Callie's black pants with one of Mariana's blouses. I brush through my hair with my fingers and rush downstairs. Stef and Lena are both dressed and waiting in the kitchen for me.
"What's going on?" I stand in the doorway.
"We got a call from your social worker, the judge got in contact with her and there was an opening today to begin your trial," Lena says.
"Today?"
"I know it's fast, and if you're not ready we can wait, but-"
"No, I want to get it over with." I walk closer to them. "I want to put him away for good."
"If you're sure?"
"I'm sure, I can't let him to this to other girls."
"Well alright then, let's go." Stef and Lena get out of their seats and lead me to the door.
In the car, Stef tells me about their lawyer and how I should act when I get in there. Then she brings up John. "He's going to be there, but you won't have to talk to him or even look at him. He's entitled to a lawyer too, so they might ask you some awkward questions, might try to catch you out."
"So, they're going to try and make it look like I made it up?" I'm shocked that anyone would ever think someone could lie about this. I guess you see it movies and stuff, but people don't do that in real life, do they?
"Possibly, but if you just tell the truth, your side of the story, then we can win this trial and get him locked up." Suddenly something comes to my mind. Stef and Lena said they would look after me until this trial was over. Maybe it's all going to be over soon, and I'll have to go back to another group home. I push aside my fears for the future and decide to focus on the here and now. The important thing is that this doesn't happen to anyone else.
We sit in a hall outside a small courtroom for a little while, people in black suits carrying briefcases walk past us, some of them look mad, some average, no one looks happy to be in this building. I wonder for a moment if anyone else is going through what I'm about to if someone in this building is trying to take down their attacker. Out of the corner of my eye, I see the glow of bleach blonde hair. Rachel. She and Mary walk in with someone in a suit. Mary's crying. They walk past us, it feels like slow motion, Mary doesn't notice me, but Rachel does, she stares at me. I haven't given her a second thought. She's lived with him her whole life, has he done this to her? If he has why didn't she warn me? I can't understand how she feels towards me, her eyes convey a mixture of hatred and sorrow, for me. I'm almost in a trance looking at what this has done to that family. It's not my fault though, it's his. I have to believe that. Stef and Lena each take one of my hands to pull me back into reality. Anita turns up, along with Stef and Lena's lawyer, who introduces herself as Janice.
A bailiff comes over to us to tell us that it's time. It's happening. For the past two weeks, I've been trying to pretend it was all a bad dream, but this is real. He escorts us into the courtroom. There's a couple of rows of seats, two desks at the front, and the judge's podium high up at the front of the room. On the left is the stand, where I'll sit when John's lawyer interrogates me. On the right where the jury sits. Mary and Rachel are sat on the left side of the aisle, just behind the desk where a man in a suit sits. The lawyer leads me to the right desk, and we sit down.
"We'll be right here, okay?" Stef and Lena sit behind us. A few other people come in, I don't recognize anyone until Sophia and her parents walk in. She spots me immediately. I get out of my seat and run into her arms. Callie told her.
"I'm so happy you're here. I know for sure I can do this now." I say just before we break apart. I greet her parents; they wish me luck and I go back to my seat. Now if I get nervous, I can look right at her. I can do this.
A door at the front of the room opens. I see the man I've been dreading to see. He walks in wearing a stereotypical orange jumpsuit, with his hands cuffed in front of him. I swear I can smell that musky cologne again. My hands tremble. He stares at me, with pure fury in his eyes. I look down at the floor. He takes his seat next to his lawyer. The bailiff walks to the front of the room.
"All rise." We all stand together. A lady in a black cloak wales in and takes her seat. We all sit down.
"Good morning ladies and gentlemen, calling the case of Gracie Cooper versus John Stevens. Are both sides ready?" The judge says.
"Ready, Your Honour." Janice stands up.
"Ready, Your Honour." John looks at me from behind his attorney.
I zone out as the lawyers present their opening statements. I should probably be paying attention, but all I can think is that he's going to get away with this. I saw his house, his car, his cell phone. He has money, his lawyer will be good.
"The court calls Gracie Cooper to the stand." John's attorney looks at me I didn't think I'd have to talk so soon. I follow the bailiff where he makes me swear on the bible, and I sit down, shaking with fear just from having John and his family stare at me. I look to Sophia; she offers me a warm smile. "Ms. Cooper, you've spent over half of your life being in and out of foster homes, correct?"
"Yes, my parents died."
"It was your third home when you lived with the Collins family, yes?" The Collins. I haven't thought about them in years. Their kid used to torture me.
"Yes."
"Why were you removed from that home?"
"Their biological son used to hurt me."
"What exactly did he do?"
"He would hit me, kick me, almost every night I stayed there, about three months."
"Did you ever go to court for this?"
"No."
"So, Mr. Collins was never charged?"
"No, he told everyone I lied."
"Your Honour, I have reason to believe that Ms. Cooper did lie and is doing the same thing to my client."
"Present your evidence." The attorney walks to his desk and picks up a pink notebook, my childhood diary, I thought it had gotten stolen.
"This is Ms. Cooper's diary from when she was a child, on page 72 she talks about how she wants to get out of a particular home she was in. This is a quote directly from Gracie." He flicks it open; my palms get sweaty. "'One of the girls in my last home told me she lied about getting beat up to get out of her last home. Maybe if I did something like that, I could go somewhere else too.' Does that sound like an honest girl to you?" He asks the jury. I wrote that way before I ever got to the Collins' house. And I wrote that because the people who I was staying with kept locking me in my room, for days at a time, I couldn't eat or even go to the bathroom.
"Your Honour if I may?" Janice stands up.
"Yes. You may speak." Janice approaches but turns to him.
"This book went missing when Gracie was only 8 years old. She wasn't with the Collins family until she was 9. The foster parents that she was with at that time are now incarcerated for child neglect. She would have had to be very young and very frightened at that time in her life, she would not have taken a risk so big in such a scary situation." She sits back down, impressed with herself. She's right, I never would have gone through with it.
"Do you have any more evidence?" The judge asks John's attorney.
"No, Your Honour."
"Then you may be seated, you too Ms. Cooper." I sigh with relief looking over at Sophia. She looks proud of me. So do Stef and Lena. I wait until he's sat down before I go and take my seat next to Janice. "The attorney of Ms. Cooper may call her first witness."
"The court calls Joe Henry to the stand," Janice says. A man from one of the seats behind John gets up and takes his seat in the stand, the clerk makes him swear. Janice approaches him.
"Mr. Henry, you went to the baseball game with Mr. Stevens correct." He nods back to her. "I'm going to need verbal confirmation."
"Yes, that is correct."
"And you've known Mr. Stephens, for how long?"
"Since we were in college, we played together in our freshman year, and now we work together in finances for the Padres."
"So, you know him well?" He nods. "Has Mr. Stephens ever showed interest in a younger girl before?"
"Well, not exactly uh-"
"Remember you're under oath, Mr. Henry."
"When we were in college, there was a party, and a young girl had taken a liking to him."
"This girl is called Rachel Shaw, correct?"
"Yes."
"Thank you, you may return to your seat." He does so. Why would John name his daughter after some girl he met when he was in college? "Your Honour may I call another witness to the stand."
"I'll allow it."
"The court calls Rachel Shaw to the stand." A pretty woman stands up from a few rows behind Stef and Lena, she swears the oath and sits down. "Rachel, you met John when you were how old?"
"I was 14." Same age as me. He has a type.
"And how old was he?"
"He was in his third year of college, so about 21."
"And you told him you were 17?"
"Yes, at first."
"As Mr. Henry said, did you take a liking to him?"
"I did, he was handsome, popular, and everyone knew he came from money. All the girls liked him."
"And did you act on your feelings?"
"I danced with him and I kissed him."
"And that was consensual?" She nods. "What happened next?"
"He took me upstairs, he said he wanted to talk, but we kissed more. I was becoming uncomfortable because he wanted to take it further. So, decided to tell him my real age. He didn't react. Then after a while, we started kissing again and he tried to take my clothes off. I told him no, we kept kissing and he tried again. I called him a pig and left him there on his own. He followed me downstairs and cornered me in a bathroom. He became violent, he grabbed my neck and told me I would regret turning him down. He tried one more time to undress me, but someone came in. So, he left."
"Can you confirm for the jury that you approached me with this information?"
"Yes. My daughter goes to school with Gracie, her friend told her about what happened, as soon as she said the name, I knew I had to say something." It takes me a minute to figure out who her daughter is, then I realize it's Taylor. I told her all about it last week.
"Thank you, Mrs. Shaw, you may return to your seat." Janice sits back next to me.
"Thank you," I mouth to her.
John's lawyer gets up and starts trying to defend his client, I zone out again. I can't listen to this anymore. He's trying to convince everyone that I'm a damaged little girl with a compulsive lying problem. He tells everyone that John is an upstanding citizen. It's sick. It goes on for about an hour until the judge speaks up.
"Considering what I've seen today, I'd like to adjourn until tomorrow," He says.
