I sat down and leaned back against the hard wooden backrest of the bench. I heard the door to the courtroom open, and I looked up expecting to see James. I saw a woman, and it didn’t even register who it was until I did a double take. Ali and Josh walked in with Sam right behind them. They settled into the row behind where I sat.
“Hi!” Ali whispered as she hugged me.
“What are you guys doing here?” I asked. I ate up the hug from her and easily accepted one from Josh.
“Dude, like we’d miss this.” Josh didn’t let go of me as quickly as Ali had. “I drove an hour in fucking traffic with your naked ass in my car bleeding to death. I wasn’t going to miss this.” Josh slapped my upper back and then let go of me.
“It’s been a long haul, Andrew,” Sam whispered as he hugged me too.
“Thank you for stitching me up all those times.”
Sam smiled and nodded. The door opened again, and Tabitha walked in wearing a gray skirt and light blue blouse. Her heels clicked as she briskly walked down the row behind me, slowly unraveling me and causing my dick to stir. She wrapped me up in a hug, and it felt incredible. I felt her strength and support. She was everything I had wanted and needed.
“Thank you for coming. You didn’t have to,” I whispered as she kissed my cheek.
“I wanted to be here for you, Andrew.”
Briefly, I pulled my attention away from Tabitha and turned toward the front of the courtroom. A bailiff had entered the room but went to talk to the attorneys.
“I saw James pulling into the parking lot as I made it to the entrance. The security line was getting long.”
“Okay, thank you,” I murmured, returning my attention to her. Tabitha and I pulled apart, and she took a seat beside Sam while I sat in front of them.
The door opened a few moments later, and Brandon hurried down my aisle and bumped me on the shoulder as he walked by. I stood to hug James, and as he wrapped his arms around me, my stomach dropped. Standing behind James was my father. I was speechless and overcome with emotion. I took a deep breath while still in James’s embrace.
“You brought my dad.” I swallowed hard. “Thank you.”
“I think you misjudged the love of a father.” James squeezed my shoulder. “And the size of your family.”
As soon as I let go of James, I hugged my dad.
“Andrew … son, you could have told me,” Dad said quietly as he hugged me. “I’m always here for you. You are everything to me.”
“I know, Dad. I should have said something. I just couldn’t.”
While I was in the embrace with my dad, Elise was escorted in. She was wearing a white jumpsuit that had Los Angeles County Jail on the back. God, why was this so hard?
“All rise,” the bailiff called out.
The next hour or so was a complete blur of attorney and psychiatrist jargon. My eyes shifted from jurors to the judge to the attorneys. I did everything possible not to look at Elise. I kept my head down a lot. I listened but doubted I would be able to retain much of this for later.
I discovered from the psychiatrists that Elise had been experiencing what they termed as auditory hallucinations. All of the psychiatrists had said when they’d spoken with Elise, they felt strongly about a schizophrenia diagnosis. The defense had crafted questions for the psychiatrists that inquired more about the voices she had supposedly heard. The psychiatrists retold parts of their conversations with Elise about hearing the voice of her husband, Jacob. Apparently, the voice of her husband warned her to keep me in line or punish me.
The defense was trying to show the jury that Elise had acted on the voice she’d heard in her head, rather than on her own accord. Thus, she wasn’t guilty due to a mental illness that had taken over her reason.
Listening to their explanations couldn’t be described as anything other than weird to me. It was difficult for me to understand. I leaned forward and rested my forearms on my legs while I stared at a woman I used to know. Or that I thought I’d known. I was certain that the continuous plea changes was just a game to drag this case out. But as I listened to several psychiatrists and then Elise, I wondered if something really was amiss with her.
“So when you repeatedly stabbed Andrew in the torso with the nine-inch-long kitchen knife, you thought it wouldn’t hurt him?” Michael asked Elise.
Her eyes were vacant as she shook her head.
“No. Andrew was in great physical shape,” Elise replied flatly.
“Be that as it may, he is still human. A knife like the one you used is sharp. When it punctures the skin and enters the body, it’s sure to cause some internal damage. Much of it can be life threatening.”
“He didn’t die,” Elise said.
“Thankfully. Elise, why did you stab Andrew with the knife?”
