Page 89 of Pushed

“And how can you know that? How can you know that's what he meant?”

“Because of what he did to set me free.”

She sees it now, she finally heard me.

Bringing my hands to my mouth, I covered the smile that started to form on my face. Imperial had pulled back the layers, peeling me open like an onion. The outside was harsh, it stung her eyes and burned her heart.

But now she saw it all, it was the sweet after the bitter, the sun after a storm; she could see me.

“Can you tell the jury what he did to help you?”

Turning to the jury, Imperial looked at each and every one of them individually. “He brought in a police officer to buy me, he made sure that man was the one who left with me. Machi. . .” Her breath hitched as tears bubbled up on the edge of her lids, slowly dropping off one by one. “Machi kept his promise, he got me my freedom, and he always kept me safe. But that man still has to live with what happened to his sister, that pain will never go away. If I were him, I would have done the same thing. I would've wanted to kill them too. His sister didn't deserve what happened to her, and he doesn't deserve the pain of the memories he has from it. He's a good man, and I'd do everything all over again, even if it killed me.”

Every nerve in my brain fired off, realizing that Imperial was finally seeing me as the man I wanted to be. For years I was lost, roaming the earth with one purpose and one purpose only. Revenge.

That was no way to live.

My muscles surged from head to toe, ready to launch me out of my seat and across the room. I wanted to hug her and hold her and tell her I loved her with everything I had.

I wanted her to know that no matter what, I would always keep her safe. She was my sun, she was my air; without her, I'd be nothing. My body would be an empty cavern, unable to take one more step through life.

She saved me, she gave me a reason to want to keep breathing, to fight through the dust and find my way home.

We had both been taken, separate and together.

Without her, I'd just be another soulless face in the dirt.

And as the lawyers made their final statements, all I could do was hope that the jury could see the same man she did.

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