When trust is questioned
Chapter 26
This chapter was very difficult for me. Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with the American court case, but I've paraphrased it as best I can.
A week later.
Angela has been on the phone with her lawyer John Newman. He will defend them in court. In the meantime, they met to go through all the facts. She told him everything that happened and he told her not to leave out any details, no matter how tiny.
The other witness will also testify. This calms Angela down a lot, then she doesn't have the feeling that she has to stand there alone.
Time flies quickly and the day in court has come.
Angela stands in her room and puts on her black blazer and a black leaden skirt with a white blouse underneath.
Tony comes into her room, he is already dressed in a suit.
He grabs her on the shoulders from behind, "Ready, dear?"
Angela snorts out loud "yes I think so".
He turns her to him, "you look pretty," he says and gives her a gentle kiss on the lips. In the last two weeks, they have hardly had the opportunity to get much closer to each other. In between, there were many doctor's appointments, anxiety worries and sleepless nights full of nightmares.
"Come, in 3 hours the hearing will begin," he says, squeezing her hand.
Only Tony accompanies her to court. Angela doesn't want the children to hear what she says, that would be too terrible.
They both go there in the Jaguar. Tony holds Angela's hand for the entire ride. She looks out the window, very absorbed in her thoughts and very calm.
When they arrive, some people are standing in front of the courthouse.
District Attorney Howard and Angela's lawyer Newman are standing in front of the entrance and talking animatedly.
Angela and Tony park the car in a side street, get out and walk up the stairs to the entrance. Angela squeezes Tony's hand tightly.
Newman sees Angela coming towards him and greets her politely, "Miss Bower" he shakes her hand. Then prosecutor Howard speaks to her in a friendly manner and gives her a firm handshake "Miss Bower".
Newman then shakes Tony's hand and introduces himself. Everyone then enters the courthouse.
The 12 jurors stand in front of the courtroom. Exactly divided into 6 women and 6 men. Everyone goes into the hall one by one. Angela looks at Tony uncertainly.
Tony hugs her sideways and they continue walking. He looks up and looks at the high stucco ceilings. Then they go into the hall.
Everyone takes their seats one by one.
Judge Webb sorted some documents at his judge's desk.
Newman is already waiting for Angela, who sits down next to him at the table. At a side table sits a petite young woman with dark blond hair.
... that must be Misses' Strauß...Angela thinks to herself and continues to look around the courtroom.
The members of the jury take their seats one by one.
Tony sits exactly one row behind Angela and briefly puts his hand on her shoulder.
Then Howard enters, Roger behind him. Angela looks at him and he looks at her
straight into the eyes and winks at her with a slight smile. Angela it comes
up, she immediately turns away and her breathing quickens. John looks over at
Roger, it didn't escape him that he was just looking at Angela and
he looks at her sideways and presses his lips together.
"It'll be fine," he whispers to her. Angela's heart beats with excitement,
she has folded her hands together in her lap and is fiddling nervously
at the tips of her fingers.
When everyone is in the courtroom, Judge Webb reads the indictment
before. Roger is on trial for attempted murder and for attempted
rape in Angela's case and rape in Misses Strauß's case.
After a while, Judge Webb calls Misses Strauß to the stand.
She stands up, very insecure and timid. Her face is pale and sad.
Then she sits down.
"Misses Strauß swear to tell the truth and nothing but the truth
So help you God?"
She nods, "I swear"
Newman asks her for the exact date, the crime scene, and then the
exact procedure.
Roger keeps glancing sideways at Angela. Disgusted, she tries to not to look.
"It was evening at work. I was still alone in the office and still had to doing some copying for my boss.
I think it was 6 p.m. when Roger came into the room. He was always very nice and accommodating to me and asked me if he
should help me.
I said no, that I would be done in a moment. Then... Then he stood behind me and" she begins to cry.
John brings her a tissue and stands to the side next to her at the desk. "Take your time," he tells her and she takes a deep breath.
"He put his hand on my hip and said he liked me... more than gladly..
But I told him that I have a boyfriend and there is no interest.
But he didn't care, he pressed his body against me and then touched my
breasts, i was frozen and didn't know exactly what to do and squeezed
his hand gone, but he was so strong" Tears flow down her face.
Angela looks at her with wide eyes and holds her hand in front of her mouth.
"...and then he pushed me against the printer and put his hand under my skirt " she looks down at her hands
that hold the tissue strongly and squeeze it together. She pauses for a moment and closes her eyes.
"... I tried and tried to push him away I didn't stand a chance and then I said no out loud, but he wasn't interested. He made me
kissed and then pushed up my skirt and forcibly pushed my panties ripped down...then he raped me...it all happened so fast
I couldn't do anything... I just couldn't!..." she says, sobbing, holding her hands in front of her face.
"Misses Strauß, do you have anyone who can testify to that?" she asks Newman.
She shakes her head "no..."
"Were you in the hospital after that?"
"No... I was so ashamed...I couldn't even tell my boyfriend …."
"I can only remember the pain afterwards... This unbelievably intense pain!"
"Misses Newman, is it correct that you were pregnant at the time?" asks her Newman.
"Yes, that's right," she says, lowering her head.
"What happened to the child?" he asks in a soft voice.
She looks at him, then at Angela, and then at Roger.
"I lost it...I was 12 weeks pregnant and I lost it. I lost my boyfriend and my child, he broke everything... everything...
At first I thought it came from stress, but later when i had confided in my gynecologist and had done an examination,
the doctor told me that it came through the rape. As a result, my uterus Irivasibles damaged, I can never have children again..."
She looks down again. Her hands are shaking.
Tears run down Angela's cheek. She can't believe it.
Roger sits there unimpressed, shakes his head and twists his arms in front of the breast.
He turns his head to Angela and raises his eyebrows in amazement.
Newman puts his hand on Misses' ostrich hand, "Thank you"
Judge Webb: "The witness is now off the stand"
"Miss Bower, please come to the witness stand"
Angela quickly wipes the tear from her face, she turns to Tony. He gives her an encouraging smile.
She sits down.
"Miss Bower swear to tell the truth and nothing but the truth so true
God help you?"
"I swear"
Newman walks up to her. He, too, wants to know everything about her. The entire
background, the crime when he tried to rape her and the knife attack.
A few times she has to swallow briefly as she tells everyone the backstory.
Again and again she looks at Tony and feels guilty because he never knew exactly what happened between her and Roger.
Tony, thank goodness, looks quite relaxed.
Newman sums it all up again for the judges and then asks for "Miss
Bower, you made it very clear that you didn't want anything more from Mr. Stanton,
Is that right?"
Angela nods "yes that's right, I told him that clearly".
"I told him very clearly that we will not be more than colleagues, that has he accepted it that way for the time being.
Until the one day when he took me on has invaded my desk.."
"What exactly did he do, Miss Bower?
"He pushed me down on the desk and touched me everywhere.." she says in a trembling voice,
"He shoved his hand under my skirt and wanted to rape me. I tried to fight back, but he was so strong i didn't make it.
He was on top of me and too heavy. If Tony hadn´t been there and if he hadn´t saved me, Roger would have raped me," she says.
She has to hold back her tears.
Newman nods.
"Tell us how the knife attack came about?"
She looks over at Roger, who is sitting there grinning slightly.
Angela shakes her head slightly. "I was outside the agency when he told me waylaid.
He wanted to touch me and became very intrusive...then pulled out the knife and held it to my stomach...then he stabbed me…
After that, I don't remember anything and was in a coma in the hospital."
"Then what exactly happened to you Miss Bower?"
"I lost a lot of blood... and a kidney" she looks down and put her hand to her stomach.
"Thank you for your testimony Miss Bower, you are now allowed to leave the witness stand"
Angela goes back to the table. She looks at Tony with glazed eyes.
He leans over to her for a moment, "You did well" and gently strokes her shoulder.
Next, Roger is called to the witness stand.
"Mr. Stanton, you swear to tell the truth, and nothing but the
truth, so help you God?"
"I swear," he says nonchalantly and then sits down.
His gaze is fixed on Angela.
Then his lawyer Howard stands up and begins questioning.