Page 51 of Tinsel Time Treasure
“I’ll give you a call.”
“Good.” He turned to Justin. “Your friend has given us permission to enter. We’re going there first, then we’ll go to your place and look for the devices you suspect are there. Please do not enter the scene until we arrive.
“Ok,” Justin replied.
The officer studied us for a couple minutes, then nodded. “We’ll speak further in a few hours.”
“Ok.”
He strode out, and Justin slumped against me.
I didn’t envy the road ahead for him, but I hoped that, for a few minutes at least, he could relax.
Chapter 21 - Justin
“How ya holding up?” Grace asked as she took a seat next to me on Max’s couch.
Max and Annie had gone to the police station to give their statements, but decided to leave Grace with me.
Frederick had lawyered up the moment he was arrested, but since it was at the end of the day I knew I was safe overnight.
But tomorrow was a different story. Would he post bail?
“They gave you an emergency restraining order, right?” Grace asked.
I nodded. “Yeah, but…”
“He would be an idiot to try and make contact right now.”
“Hasn’t all this been idiotic?”
She leaned against me and rested her head on my shoulder.
We were quiet for several minutes until she jolted.
I jumped. “What?”
“Sorry,” she muttered, rubbing her middle. “The baby kicked me.”
“Oh…” I paused. “What’s it like? Being pregnant I mean. I haven’t been.”
She chuckled. “Not gonna lie, it’s been rough, especially with the morning sickness. But…” she paused to rub her bump. “Considering that they thought I might never be able to have a baby, I’ll take every minute draped over the toilet.”
“Ummm… If it’s not too personal…”
She gave me a soft smile. “My…” she paused and took a deep breath. “My stalker got violent pretty quick. I was never even into men, but that didn’t matter. After I rejected him too many times…”
She closed her eyes, trembling slightly. “He said that if I wouldn’t give him kids, then I couldn’t give anybody kids. He stabbed me. For a while they thought I’d lose my womb…”
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered.
She opened her eyes and looked at me. “Thank you.” She looked down and trailed her fingers over her bump again. “It’s why I advocate for victims now though.”
She smiled. “And Annie… She was amazing. I met her at the hospital, and we just clicked. She was by my side the whole time as it all went to trial.”
I bit my lip. “Was that hard? Trial?”
She nodded. “I didn’t want to face him again, but I really didn’t want the court to be lenient. So I sat in the courtroom for the full trial, did my part as a witness, and made sure that the jury got a good look at me every time he tried to claim that I led him on… because of course he was so arrogant that he demanded a jury trial rather than just the judge.”
