Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 100716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
“I won’t let them take her from us, Tillie.” I hug her in closer, lessening her shakes. “I won’t let them win.”
47
MARA
My breath catches when the courtroom door opens, and Tillie enters two steps in front of Ark. The past week has been the longest we’ve been away from each other. I’ve missed her so much, but the pain has been manageable since I know deep in my heart that she is being well cared for.
Ark loves her as if she is his own. I have no doubt about that. What he did for her already proved it, but the way he included her in all aspects of his life in the three days following his confession outright verified it.
“Mommy!”
I hug Tillie the best I can in the prison shackles the guard has yet to remove, squeezing her tight and breathing in her scent. I almost cry. Now Ark’s obsession with my shampoo makes sense. You don’t realize how for-granted you take things until they are removed from your grasp.
Tillie inches back before I’ve had close to my fill and does a twirl. “Do you like my new dress? Riley made it for me.”
She speaks at a million miles an hour, but I refuse to slow her down. She’s flourishing under Ark’s care, and it assures me that I made the right decision accepting a victim advocacy lawyer’s advice.
The courts will be less harsh on me since I am a woman who has faced inexcusable abuse that is well-documented in numerous medical files.
They’d throw the book at Ark since none of his abuse made it into a file.
Well, they hadn’t.
He has spoken out in the past week, and the stance he’s taken against predators has made me incredibly proud. He is removing the stigma victims of abuse forever endure and touching the lives of many—Tillie and Riley included.
By speaking up, Ark’s approval rating has surged to record highs.
The same can’t be said for Veronika. When her plans to out an underage victim of abuse for personal gain were unearthed, she lost hundreds of thousands of followers in a day and was stripped of multiple endorsement deals.
She will be licking her wounds for years, if not decades.
I shift my focus back to the present when Tillie discloses, “Riley made a new dress for you, too. It’s in your closet at home, next to Ark’s clothes.” Her giggle warms my heart. “Do you know he wears stuffy suits and ugly ties every day? Mrs. Lichard said it is because he’s a business mogul.” She peers up at me with her nose screwed up. “What is a mogul?”
She is given an answer from a man I will walk through hell to shelter as well as he protected her. “It is a man who won’t stop fighting until he gets everything he wants and deserves.” As I admire the crispness of Ark’s designer suit and his gorgeous face, he drinks me in like I don’t look wretched before he shifts his rapidly narrowed eyes to the bailiff. “Get the shackles off her, now.”
“Sir—”
“Now!” Ark repeats, yelling.
“It’s okay,” I whisper, unbothered by the restraints.
I pled guilty to murder. I deserve to be in shackles.
I just hope they won’t be on for much longer.
Since I pled guilty, I automatically waived my right for a trial. My lawyer said the ADA would rather plead out my case than see it go to court, but the DA took a stance no one anticipated. He left my fate in the hands of a judge I’ve never met.
I could have recanted my confession and faced a jury of my peers, but I couldn’t risk them finding me not guilty or calling a mistrial. That would keep the case open, and the investigation into my relationship with Ark would be ongoing.
I don’t want Ark to spend the rest of his life looking over his shoulder, waiting for the authorities to catch up with him. I want him to live his life as freely as a snap decision he made will allow Tillie to live hers.
He gave her the freedom I’ve been desperately seeking to unearth for the past ten years, and he has the means to make sure she lives her life to the fullest.
I could barely afford to buy a pair of gym shoes, so I’d serve thirty consecutive life sentences if it was the only way I could give my daughter the life she deserves.
When the bailiff instructs the court-goers to rise, I hug Tillie for a second time before I watch Ark guide her to an empty section of a pew near the front.
The courtroom is full. Journalists fill the back of the pews, victims of abuse take up the middle, and a small handful of people I class as family stretch across the front two pews.
The bailiff demands quiet when the tension in the room reaches fever pitch, and a handful of SA protestors can’t help but shout their anger at the system that did them wrong.