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“Mr. Crawford. Please refrain from making any comments that are not in response to questions asked. This is your second warning. If you do it again, I will have to ask you to leave this courtroom, and you will not have a chance to state the rest of your case. You are a lawyer for goodness’ sake,” she breathed. “There are rules in this courtroom. Obey them.”
“Right. I’m sorry, Your Honor.” I straightened my shoulders and tie, awaiting Mr. Levine’s questions. The room was quiet for a moment, and everyone stared at me.
“Your answer, Mr. Crawford,” Mr. Levine demanded.
Turning to the judge, I whispered. “I don’t remember the question. Is it okay if I…?” I gestured toward Mr. Levine.
The judge rolled her eyes and let out a sigh. “Yes, Mr. Crawford. You may ask a question,” she said with exhaustion. It felt like I got my own back for a small moment, as petty as it was. Hell, if I were uncomfortable, they could be too. “I’m sorry, Mr. Levine. Do you mind asking the question again?”
“Most certainly, Mr. Crawford.” Mr. Levine cleared his throat and softened his pressed lips before looking at me as if he were mocking me. “The difference between eighteen years old and twenty-one years old is only three years. What difference does it make for you to engage with someone over twenty-one and someone under twenty-one if both ages are consensual?”
“Well, Mr. Levine, the difference is a twenty-one-year-old is considered an adult, not a consenting teenager. In some circumstances, say in a supervisory position, a twenty-one-year-old may be arrested for sexual misconduct with someone under eighteen in the states you mentioned, even if the age of consent is sixteen. Even if that sixteen-year-old consented. As long as the twenty-one-year-old is in a position of authority over the teen.
“Meanwhile, an eighteen-year-old is closer in age to a sixteen-year-old and in those same states could safely engage in intercourse with the sixteen-year-old seeing that they’re only two years apart in age under similar circumstances.
“But a twenty-one-year-old, regardless of circumstances is able to consent to engaging in sexual intercourse with any other consenting adult regardless of the positions they’re in. In short, when it comes to consenting to other grown adults, it would be safe to say that they have the same legal requirements as a forty-year-old does and could face the same legal consequences.
“Of course, in certain circumstances.
“As you know, the law isn’t clear cut, and we could sit here and talk all day about the ins and outs of the law, but you know as well as I do that legally, however it’s spun, twenty-one years old is considered a legal adult, three years past the maximum age of consent and therefore, my sexual engagement with your daughter wasn’t a crime. That’s the difference, Mr. Levine.” I leaned back in my seat, mimicking the same ‘comfortable’ position Mrs. Levine took a few moments ago.
She huffed and if I didn’t know any better, I’d think there was smoke coming from her nostrils.
Mr. Levine’s face reddened, and it was as if his pores would start bleeding fire. “Mr. Crawford, how long have you been best friends with Christopher Levine, Tiffany’s brother?” he asked, this time not doing much to hide the curl of his lip and the flare of his nostrils.
“Objection, relevance?” Tiffany shot up out of her seat.
“Overruled,” the judge said without a glance in Tiffany’s direction. She flopped back in her seat, scrunching her hand through her hair and scalp.
“Since college,” I said, clearing my throat and cracking my neck from the build-up of tension settling in my nerves and bones.
“How long would you say that was? About ten years ago?” he asked, turning pale with the question as if the realization of what he would be implying started to take shape in his mind.
“Yes, about. Maybe longer, Mr. Levine. And no, Mr. Levine, I did not…” I started.
“You’ve answered the question, Mr. Crawford. Please wait until the next question is asked before you answer again,” the judge said, staring daggers at me.
I didn’t want him to ask the follow-up question.
“I have no further questions, Your Honor,” Mr. Levine said.
Relief rushed from my mouth in a breath. Oh, thank goodness.
Except, he left the question hanging, leaving others to speculate. And that made me feel ill. It took everything in me not to scream aloud in the courtroom that I wasn’t what they were painting me out to be. To be thought of as something so grotesque, it was torture, and I needed it to end. But most importantly, I needed the truth to win out in this case. I needed to prove them wrong.
Chapter 24
Tiffany
“I’dliketocallTiffany as our witness.” Mario stood and spoke into his mic before turning to me and mouthing, “Are you okay?”
I nodded.
It was torture sitting here and watching my parents badger Jared when I knew the truth about our relationship. Anger built up inside me at the way they were trying to paint him, and it felt like I was constantly on the edge of just detonating. As he made his way down from the stand, I fought off the need to rush over to him and wrap him in my arms. So, I waited until he was close, tapping my heels impatiently, holding eye contact with him, until he was standing in front of me.
“Ms. Levine,” the judge called as the court waited for me to approach the stand, but I took a few seconds just to pull him close, tipping on my toes to try to hug him around the shoulders. He bent to pull me closer as well, and I could feel the pulse of his heart hammering through me.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered, running my hand through the back of his hair as I held onto him.
