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27
Addilyn
I’d vomited the breakfast and lunch I’d forced myself to eat.
My temples throbbed regardless of the Tylenol I’d taken.
Every muscle in my body strained tight beneath my skin, like a rubber band stretched taut and ready to snap.
My breath escaped in pants, and I fought for calm so I wouldn’t pass out in front of everyone staring at me.
I allowed myself another eyeful of Gideon sitting in a yellow-gold uniform, hair long and hanging over his furrowed brow. Blue eyes that heated me through regardless of the icy countenance on his face. Lips thinned and tight. Cords in his neck prominent as though he fought to sit still and not rush to spirit me away from the courthouse—from my heartache. My pain.
A sense of emptiness swelled inside my chest even as my heartbeat fluttered.
Longing fueled him. Need—and not just to be near me again, I expected. He needed his freedom and wanted to be by my side, same as I wanted to be by his.
Mother hadn’t allowed me to sit in on the trial, and Lloyd hadn’t shared much of what had happened during the morning hours. He’d simply given me a quick hug and kiss to the top of my head when Mother wasn’t looking.
“Just tell the truth,” he had whispered before releasing me.
Mother had glanced between us upon turning, and I couldn’t bear the accusation in her eyes. She had to know I wanted nothing to do with her husband. Couldn’t she see my devastation over Gideon’s arrest? Still, my gaze found the floor and had stayed there until I was admitted to the courtroom.
The feel of a million eyes shivered over my skin, but it had been the energy I recognized that lifted my head, kept my focus shifting over faceless bodies until I’d seen him.
Gideon.
My princess,his eyes seemed to say—
“Would you state your name…”
I tore my gaze off my stepbrother and struggled to focus on the prosecuting attorney. All that talk, those movies of meeting with lawyers to go over questions—they’d never schooled me on what to say once I sat on the witness stand. I was going in blind.
Shakiness settled into my muscles, and I struggled to find my voice when asked my name.
More questions came my way, ones requiring replies that didn’t hold any sway over the proceedings. I managed to settle into my seat, unclenching my fingers’ tight grip on each other.
“Would you please tell the court about your relationship with Gideon Destil.”
Easily done, also easy to be honest about, but I caught sight of Devon beyond the prosecuting attorney standing in front of me.
Shading still lay beneath his eye, but no other evidence of injury marked his face. He smiled his goofy grin, but I couldn’t find the energy to return the gesture, no matter how much I wanted to apologize for what had happened to him.
Lloyd had demanded I stay away from him in school, so I had. No chatting with him on social media either. We’d shared our first kiss—and hadn’t spoken a word since.
“Miss Reed?”
Blinking, I turned my attention to the frowning man in front of me.
My relationship with Gideon.
Yes.
Clearing my throat, I started from the beginning, telling the court about my stepbrother that I hadn’t been thrilled to meet. But he turned out to not be so bad, I assured them, my voice still shaking, my brain and lips stumbling over words.
He took me to and from school every day, watched over me like the big brother I hadn’t realized I’d wanted.
The first half hour passed easily enough as the questions pertaining to our relationship allowed me to paint him in a caretaker’s role, a loving sibling who always tried to protect me. My insides relaxed, and I wondered if Lloyd had somehow talked the prosecuting attorney into taking it easy on me and to not ask questions I would be forced to answer truthfully that might make Gideon look bad.
