Page 36 of Mabilia

“Then don’t give me a reason to,” she says, with a hint of anger in her tone.

I turn back around and straighten my shoulders. I try to block out the fact that she’s so close that I could touch her. Kiss her. And then there are her parents. Why are they here? To support her obviously, but I know her father would love to see me hang. Even if I didn’t commit the crime.

“All rise. Court is now in session,” the bailiff calls out, and I stand and wait for the judge’s directive.

“You may be seated.” He waves a hand without so much as looking over at me. Then I watch as he picks up a piece of paper, reads it, and glares at the prosecutor. “Care to explain this nonsense?”

“Your Honor, there have been some holdups on locating the evidence that was collected last night,” the prosecutor says.

“What kind of holdup, exactly?” the judge asks.

Matteo chuckles beside me, but his face doesn’t give any indication of that as he stands and buttons his jacket. “The evidence presented—or lack thereof—is demonstrably insufficient to meet the burden of proof required for a conviction, let alone a charge against my client. This case is devoid of any credible basis to proceed further. We urge the court to uphold the principle of due process and dismiss this case outright, as the prosecution has simply not provided the necessary foundation to justify wasting the court’s time,” he says.

I look up at him with wide eyes.How is there no evidence?

“Your Honor, the defendant confessed just last night,” the prosecutor argues.

“Do you have the tapes? Recordings? Anything to suggest that my client confessed to a murder?” Matteo counters.

“We have them… We just have to… locate them, Your Honor,” the prosecutor replies.

“Your Honor, my client was arrested, taken in, and questioned for hours about a murder that never even occurred. Without counsel present, mind you.Afterhe requested a lawyer. They were simply trying to get him to admit to something, using an innocent man as a pawn in their own twisted games,” Matteo argues.

“Case dismissed. Until you have evidence…” the judge says, “…any evidence, the defendant is free to go.”

“What just happened?” I ask Matteo.

“You just got lucky, kid. Don’t make me have to get your ass out of jail again. Or bury it. I really hate digging graves these days,” he tells me.

“They’re not going to be able to go after her, are they?”

“There are no bodies. No bodies, no murders, kid,” Matteo says.

“I don’t know what you did, but thank you,” I tell him, and he shrugs.

“It wasn’t me.”

I push up from my chair, turn to face Mabilia’s father, and hold out a hand to him. “Thank you. I don’t know what you did, but thank you.”

Mr. Petrov returns the gesture, squeezing hard. “Don’t make me regret it. I can put you right back in that cell as easy as I got you out of it.”

I nod my head and look to Mabilia. She jumps over the small wooden barrier and dives straight into me. My arms wrap around her waist, and I bury my face in the crook of her neck. Mabilia tightens her grip on me.

“Don’t ever do anything stupid like that again,” she says.

“If it’s you or me, I will always make sure it’s me,” I tell her.

“We need to get out of here.” Mrs. Petrov tugs on Mabilia’s arm.

“Okay.” She loosens her grip, and I reluctantly let her pull away. Then she entwines her fingers with mine as we follow her parents out of the courthouse. “You know you’re going to have to come for that family dinner now, right?” Mabilia whispers.

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” I reply.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Eight months later

You know when you’ve been waiting for a day to come for so long and then it finally arrives and it’s everything you thought it would be? Well, that’s not today for me. It’s move-in day for college. I had to beg, plead, and basically steal to get my father to sign off on me living in the dorms.

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