“Yes,” she whispers.
“Why does it sound like it makes you sad?”
“Because Sorrow is a genuine, good person. She’s kind and sweet, and she was always nice to me, even though I didn’t deserve it.”
“Why didn’t you deserve it?”
“Because it was my fault Alec was hurting her.”
Silence blankets the room as we all take a collective breath at her admission. She’d told me and Sorrow the basics beforehand. I suspect she told Sorrow more than she told me because she knew I’d lose my shit, but she didn’t want us to be blindsided when she mentioned it. I never told everyone else because it was Katy’s business, and I had no clue she was going to take the stand today and make it public.
I hear the guys behind me stirring angrily, but I keep my focus on Katy.
“How was it your fault, Katy?” Mr. Knowles asks her softly.
“Alec liked to hurt me.”
The discontent behind me grows as the men who have always loved Katy like their own sister find out just how fucked-up things were.
“Hurt you how?”
“It used to be mostly pinching, hair pulling, scratching, that kind of thing when I was smaller. When I started to get older,he would shove me around, punch holes in the wall next to my head, and throw things at me.”
“Did you tell your parents?”
“Yes. They told me to stop telling tales. My dad told me to toughen up. My mom told me boys will be boys.”
Sorrow digs her nails into my hand and hisses. I notice none of the women in the room react well to that line, as if that is a universal trigger.
“Did they punish him at all?”
“No. They told him to be nicer to me, that’s all. He was so mad I told on him. He locked me in my closet when my parents went to a party and he was babysitting me. My parents found me there in the morning. I’d wet myself. He told them we’d been playing hide and seek. They let him go out with his friend and punished me for soiling myself.”
“Did the incidents continue after that?”
“Yes. Every time he got away with something, he escalated it.”
“Could you give me some examples?”
She blows out a deep, shuddering breath. “He trapped me in the shower and shut the hot water off. I was in there for an hour with the freezing water pelting me. I thought I was going to die. He cut my hair, destroyed my homework, trashed my room, and stole any money I had. Not because he needed it—because my parents gave him anything he wanted. He took it just because he could. By the time I was nine, I stopped telling on him. I figured if I kept my mouth shut, he’d get bored. Instead, he started giving me dead arms and dead legs, kicking my legs out from under me, and whipping me with a dishcloth. I was always covered with bruises, but he knew where to hurt me without people noticing. Not that Mom or Dad cared.
“The second time I ran away, it was because he pushed me down the stairs,” she admits. I let go of Sorrow’s hand andsqueeze them into fists, my nails cutting into my palms. How did I not know any of this? What kind of fucking brother was I?
“You didn’t tell your brother Jake?”
“I told my parents, and of course they didn’t believe me. I couldn’t handle it if Jake didn’t believe me, too. When Sorrow first came along, Alec wasn’t bothered by her one way or another. He carried on tormenting me like usual until he noticed that Jake liked Sorrow.
“That’s when he started being extra nice around her. He’d come back home in a mood sometimes and slap me around, but it was less than before. I thought he was finally getting bored with me. The last time he hit me, it was a punch. I don’t even know what he was mad about. He just hit me, and I fell, hitting my head on the fireplace. My mom and dad had no choice but to take me to the hospital because I needed stitches.
“They told the doctor it was an accident. Nobody ever asked me. I was going to tell Jake after that, but then he enlisted and was gone. I was so scared Alec was going to kill me one day.”
“What did he do to you after that, Katy?” Mr. Knowles asks gently.
“Nothing. That was the last time he did anything to me. I thought I’d been right and that he got bored with me. And then one day, I saw bruises around Sorrow’s wrists, and I knew. I knew he’d started hurting her instead of me, and for a little while, I was relieved,” she admits before bursting into tears.
I stand up, wanting to go to her, but the judge stares at me and orders me to sit. He asks Katy if she’d like a glass of water. She shakes her head before getting herself under control.
“Are you okay to carry on, Miss?” he asks her.
