“No.”
“Your brothers?”
“No, Dad. I’m fine, just tired.”
“Is it Elise?”
When my cell phone vibrated again, I pulled it out of my pocket, eager to escape my dad’s assessing eyes and concerned conversation. I had two missed calls from my attorney. As I tried to answer this call, it had disconnected. A voicemail popped up at the same time as a text message from him came through, asking me to call him.
“I’ll be right back, Dad. I need to make a call.”
I stepped outside, dialed Michael, and began aimlessly wandering around the sidewalk.
“Andrew, thanks for calling me back so fast.”
“No problem. What’s up?” I asked. The back-and-forth plea changes from Elise and her defense team were becoming almost common place anymore.
“The judge rejected Elise’s request from last Friday to change to the double plea.”
“What? Really?”
“Really.”
“That’s good, right?”
“Yes.” He laughed. “The sanity trial will take place two weeks from today at nine a.m.”
“Wow, that’s great news.” I paced around as I tried to wrap my head around all of this. “I was expecting another plea change, to be honest.”
“No, not this time, or ever again. Thankfully, the judge was onto the defense and put an end to the game.”
“Am I supposed to attend the sanity trial? Do I need to do anything or say anything?”
“No, you won’t have to say anything. You’re welcome to attend the hearing, but there won’t be an option for you to say anything. Since she’s stuck on the plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, you won’t need to sit with us either. If you elect to attend, you can sit on the public side of the partition.”
“Okay, thank you.”
“It’s almost over, Andrew. Hang in there for a few more weeks.”
“I will.”
I ended the call with Michael and was ecstatic and unsure of what to do. While I continued to pace the sidewalk, I texted everyone and let them know the judge had rejected Elise’s plea change request and the court was proceeding with the sanity trial in two weeks. Replies started to come back almost instantly.
Tabitha: That’s wonderful news, Andrew. It’s almost over.
Josh: Time to pay the piper!
Brandon: Good!
Ali’s text was a gif of fire and an ominous mouth laughing behind the flames. James called me instead of texting, and we spoke for a few minutes.
“I’m so glad the plea game has been put to bed and she will finally be held accountable for her actions.”
“Me too. I just want to move past all of this.”
“In a few weeks, this stress will be eliminated.”
“I’m glad, because it’s affecting my sleep now. I’m stressed a lot.”
