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Except she would have to deal with him—very soon. The last message they’d gotten from Councilor Paige had said that the case was moving quickly because it was so high profile. It might not be long before she and Torus were both called on to testify. And what if Zach’s lawyer asked her the same awful, intrusive questions the “reporter” guy had asked? What if he demanded to know if Zach had raped her? What if?—
“Hey, sweetheart.” Torus put a hand on her thigh and squeezed gently. “I can feel your fear and anxiety,” he told her. “Please don’t worry—whatever happens, we’ll get through it together.”
“Really?” Molly asked in a small voice.
“Really.” He squeezed her leg again, reassuringly. “I’m not going to leave your side—I promise.”
“Thank you.” Molly felt a little bit better. The ice cubes in her stomach seemed to melt and she smiled back at the big Kindred. “Come on—let’s go back to the bungalow. I’ve had enough of being out in public for today.”
“I have too.” He nodded. “Let’s have a quiet Last Meal and cuddle on the couch. We can watch one of your ‘com-rom’ movies so I can learn more about Earth culture.”
Molly smiled.
“That’s ‘rom-com’ as in romantic comedy and it sounds perfect.”
“Good—then let’s go,” he rumbled and the ship lifted off.
Molly watched as the ground receded, eager to get back to their little love nest on the beach.
She had no idea that this was the last quiet evening they would spend together in the bungalow…the last real night of their honeymoon and she certainly had no idea what would happen to end it.
31
MOLLY
“Well, the two of you have officially gone viral.” Lizabeth Paige’s face on the holo-projector in the living area of the bungalow looked grimly satisfied.
“Oh no—have we? What for?” Molly exclaimed at the same time Torus said,
“What do you mean we’ve gone ‘viral’?”
“It means that a video of the two of you has taken social media by storm. This one here…”
Councilor Paige’s head disappeared to be replaced by an image of the “reporter” guy in the backwards baseball cap shouting questions at the two of them.
“See?” the lawyer said, reappearing. “He only uploaded it last night but that little ‘interview’ he did with you two is all over social media today. You’re trending everywhere.”
“Who is that human?” Torus demanded. “He was very insulting towards Molly—I was extremely angry.”
“He nearly went into Rage again,” Molly said, glancing up at her huge husband. “But we just left instead of, uh, getting into a confrontation.”
“It’s probably a good thing you did. That’s a social media star called Mandrew Pate but he usually goes by the title “Manwitch” or just ‘The Big M,’” Councilor Paige told them, reappearing on the holo-projector. “He’s very into the ‘men’s rights’ movement.”
“Men’s rights? What rights is he talking about?” Torus asked, frowning. “Do males have some kind of special privileges on Earth?”
“Don’t get me started on that,” Councilor Paige said dryly. “I’m just saying he posted that video everywhere and I believe public opinion is with the two of you—which is exactly what we want. That statement he made about men not being able to sexually assault their wives made a lot of people angry.”
“It certainly made me angry,” Torus growled. “What’s wrong with human males? Do they truly think they own their wives’ bodies and can do anything they want to them?”
“Unfortunately, there are quite a few human men who still think that way, yes,” Councilor Paige said grimly. “It’s bullshit but misogyny is so deeply ingrained in some of them there’s no changing their minds. Mandrew Pate definitely falls into that category. And as you can probably tell, he’s a big fan of your ex, Molly.”
“Yeah, I could tell that by the way he was calling Zach a ‘tech genius,’” Molly said dryly. “He’s probably played all his games or something.”
“Well, he did us a good turn by posting that video, anyway,” the lawyer said. “And it couldn’t come at a better time because the case is about to start.”
“Are we both going to have to testify?” Molly felt her throat get tight—so tight she could barely get the question out.
“I’m afraid so,” Councilor Paige said gently. “But we’ll try to keep it brief.”
