Page 126 of Prey for You

41.Prove It

~ BRIDGET ~

When I stumbled out of the courtroom and into the hallway, I made a beeline straight for the women’s bathroom, ignoring Jeremy’s calls from behind me. I plowed through that swinging door and straight to the first open toilet where I vomited over and over and over again.

Coercive control. Stockholm syndrome. Trauma bonding.

Heave.

Self-destruction.

Heave.

Get her naked in the park…

Heave.

Orgasm—sometimes more than once.

Heave…

My fault. My fault. My fault.

I didn’t breathe for so long I saw stars and my head spun. When I finally coughed, then inhaled, the next exhale came out as a sob.

Coercive control. Stockholm syndrome. Trauma bonding.

I hugged that toilet long after my body had stopped revolting. Long after Jeremy shoved his head in the door and called for me. Then sent a woman Bailiff in to find me.

Self-destruction.

I couldn’t think. I couldn’tbreathe.

I was vaguely aware of being led down the hallway and out of the Courthouse, put in the back of a car and driven out of the building.

Orgasms—plural—because that was what she wanted…

Someone said that the media didn’t know I was leaving and weren’t waiting, so I didn’t need to worry.

I hadn’t.

My fault. My fault. My fault.

I closed my eyes and pressed my clammy forehead against the cool glass of the window. I didn’t open them until the car engine died and the door opened and I almost fell out.

It was Jeremy’s hand that caught my arm, and sat me back up.

“Shit, Bridget,” he murmured.

“Let me go,” I mumbled through numb lips. “I need to go—”

“Bridget, Gerald’s coming,” Jeremy said softly. At some point he must have squatted in the gap of the open door, because somehow his head was lower than mine.

“I don’t need fuckingGeraldo’scommentary on my life!”

“That’s not why—”

“Let me go, Jeremy.”

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