Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 89162 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 446(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89162 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 446(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
“Yes, I heard about that.” Councilor Paige frowned. “Mandrew Pate was whining on social media that you ‘ruined his Maserati.’”
“He’s lucky I didn’t ruin his face,” Torus growled, his eyes flashing red. “He came after my Mate! I had every right to kill him for what he did.”
“I’m glad you didn’t—it would make things more complicated,” the lawyer said. “Though I agree he had no right to come after Molly—we’re already suing him for liable and to make him take down the things he’s been posting on-line.” She looked at Molly. “Which brings me to what I’m actually worried about.”
“Oh?” Molly felt a lump in her throat that she couldn’t seem to swallow. “What…what’s that?”
“Well, we’ve been working for weeks to scrub the Internet of the videos your ex put out,” the lawyer told her. “But it’s not easy—especially as this is a high-profile case and it’s getting a lot of attention. They keep popping up. So you might have to deal with people saying some nasty things about you on-line, Molly. I’m sorry.”
Molly lifted her chin.
“Don’t worry about it,” she said. “I’m used to it by now. I don’t spend much time on-line anyway—social media is poison.”
“I agree with you there,” Councilor Paige said. “I just wanted you to be prepared for what you might see when you get down here. There are probably going to be some protestors around the courthouse—followers of your ex. He’s rich and famous so he seems to attract a lot of unhinged fans.”
“He always has, ever since he published his first game and it went viral,” Molly said—her voice sounded much more calm than she felt, she thought.
“The fans and the protestors aren’t going to affect the proceedings in court,” Councilor Paige assured her. “Since Zach Wyndham had sued us for pain and suffering and theft of his property, we’ve counter-sued using some of the anti-revenge porn laws on the books. We’ve also gotten several of your ex-employers to come forward and admit why they fired you. They’ll testify that your ex sent them the videos of you—he didn’t even bother to hide who he was when he sent them,” she added, with a gleam of satisfaction. “By the time I’m done with him, it will be abundantly clear that he doesn’t have a leg to stand on.”
“But he does have a leg,” Torus rumbled, frowning. “I only broke his right leg—his left should still be functional.”
Molly and the lawyer had looked at each other and shared a rare laugh.
“No, no, honey,” Molly told him. “It’s an Earth expression—it means he doesn’t have any defense for what he did.”
“That’s right—no defense,” Councilor Paige had agreed, wiping her eyes. “He should have been prosecuted long ago under the anti-revenge porn laws already in place. The fact that he hasn’t been—despite Molly trying time and again to advocate for herself to various police departments and government agencies—is deplorable! I have half a mind to sue them once we finished with your ex,” she said to Molly.
“Please, no.” Molly had shaken her head. “I just want to get through this and never have to think about it again.”
And now that she was sitting in the courtroom, she had the same thought—I just want this to be over!
As it turned out, the trial was moving fairly quickly. There had been a few protestors waving signs and shouting ugly things at her around the courthouse steps. But one menacing look from Torus had shut them up. Her big Kindred husband had kept one arm protectively around her shoulders the whole way, shielding her from any possible harm or attacks.
As the plaintiff, Zach had demanded a jury trial and Molly had seen several of the jury members shooting curious glances at herself and Torus as they got seated. She heard one of them whisper to another,
“How do they, uh, fit together? You know what I mean?”
“Yeah, I know—shut up, they can probably hear us!” was the whispered reply.
Molly didn’t say a word or let on that she’d heard them but she imagined that particular question was uppermost in a lot of people’s minds as they looked at her and Torus together.
She wished again that they could fit together. As wonderful as the TET link was, she had a feeling that a Soul Bond would be infinitely better. Also, she wouldn’t still be wondering if she should stay with the big Kindred—which was what he insisted he wanted—or dissolve their marriage and go their separate ways.
The very thought of that made her heart hurt, but it didn’t seem fair to deny him sex for the rest of his life. Torus swore he was happy with what they had and what they were able to do, but Molly had grown up in a religious culture that claimed it was a sin for a wife to deny her husband sex. Also, her only other sexual partner had been her ex and Zach had constantly complained about “not getting enough”, despite the fact that he insisted on taking what he wanted every night before rolling over and going to sleep…