Page 114 of Yolo

I sat back down and wondered if Joseph had paid off this judge, too.

His rude ass had me wondering.

Who would deny lending a blind woman a helping hand?

Obviously this asshole.

The judge frowned as he watched her walk up with Kevin’s help. It deepened the more he watched her.

Had he not known that she was blind?

“The seat’s right there, dear,” Kevin said as he helped her into her seat.

She smiled and took off her sunglasses, tucking them into her lap.

Then she opened her eyes, and I heard the judge inhale.

“Place your right hand here,” Kevin urged as he helped her put her hand onto the Bible.

“Do you swear to tell the truth…” the man standing in front of the stand started.

I watched the judge’s eyes as he studied Bindi.

Yeah, he hadn’t known that she was blind.

How had he missed that in the case notes?

I could tell he thought them disconcerting.

I loved them. They were one of the most beautiful things about her.

But if you weren’t ready for the hazy eyes, they were startling.

Two minutes later, Kevin started in, asking her to explain her relationship with Joseph.

“He was great in the beginning,” Bindi started. “Very attentive, sophisticated and debonair. But as time went on, the more I realized that our social standings were quite different. He also never let me forget it. To be truthful, I’m not sure why I’d accepted his proposal. At that moment in time, I was miserable. But I did. I guess I didn’t think it was too degrading. He was rich and important, and I was a girl that survived on thirty thousand dollars a year from a paramedic degree.”

“Tell us about the day that you were hurt,” Kevin suggested.

Bindi did, telling about how they’d started out driving to the mountain and intending to get an afternoon hike in the moment they arrived.

“It started out strenuous. Joseph and his family are in great climbing shape. They do it all the time. Meanwhile, I’d never been climbing before in my life until I met them,” she said. “Even though I’d been doing hikes on and off for about a year with them, it never got easier. It was like the harder I tried, the harder they tried to push me. That day was like any other climb with them. I was at the end of the pack. Joseph’s sister was already two switchbacks above me. Joseph’s parents were in between Joseph and their daughter. And I was at the back, trying to keep up.”

She took a deep breath and looked at where she assumed Joseph was at his table. “The boulder came out of nowhere. It hit me directly on top of the head, and I fell. I went down so hard that gravel bit into my chin. The pain in my head was instantaneous, and I swear, it was like I blinked. One second I could see, and the next I was blind. I couldn’t see a single ounce of anything. No light. No blurriness. Just instantaneous darkness.”

“What happened after that?” the judge asked.

He looked like a hardass, like he wasn’t quite believing her.

“I pushed myself up, expecting to get my vision back, and it never came.” She hesitated. “I cried out for Joseph’s help, and he laughed and said, ‘Quit being dramatic, Bindi. Get up and keep walking.’”

“And then?” the judge pushed.

Anger was boiling in my gut all over again at the reminder of how I’d found her.

How she’d nearly died in my arms.

“They kept walking and left me there,” she admitted softly.

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