Page 110 of Life To My Flight

Then it wasn’t.

Brendan’s lawyer was a beast.

He was tall, broad, and unforgiving.

He was cute for an older man, but any and all appeal was lost as soon as he started questioning me.

“Can you walk me through the routine, just one more time, Ms. Loden?” Mr. Masterson asked.

I don’t think he meant it to come out sounding so harsh, but it did.

He made me feel like I was a low life criminal, and I wasn’t. I was a law-abiding citizen who only wanted to make a difference.

That was why I was a SANE nurse.

They needed me when they were most vulnerable.

Sure, most of the time they were just bullshit cases, but every once in a while, like with Audrey, I helped.

Which was why I pulled my big girl panties up, and explained it one more time.

“As I said,” I sighed. “I was called in to work a case on the night of April 7. I walked into the room, started speaking with Vanessa, and started collecting what little evidence there was.”

“And what do you mean by, ‘what little of it there was?’” Mr. Masterson asked, eyes pinning me in place.

My leg was shaking a mile a minute, but I answered the intimidating man despite my growing ire.

“I mean there was very little, if any, evidence. There was no tearing,” I explained, holding up one finger. “There was no bruising,” I said holding up the second. “There was no semen. There were no fibers. Vanessa didn’t even want to press charges, but her father was standing outside the door ranting. So she did anyway.”

Once I got that last sentence out, a small smile tipped up the corner of the stoic lawyer’s lips. “I see. And what was the father doing during this time?”

“He was on the phone with the DA’s office, from what I could tell. He was ranting and raving about turning this,” I said, gesturing to the room as a whole with my hand. “Town upside down, and selling off every property he owned if someone, somewhere, didn’t ‘fix’ this.’”

A grumbled oath from someone in the crowd had my heart beating a little faster.

I knew it was Vanessa’s father.

I just knew that if I looked over at him right now, he’d flay the skin from my body with the intensity of his anger.

“Anyway, like I said, she told me that she said ‘no’ but she also told me she was playing a game with the young man. However, towards the end she ‘actually meant it’ even though in the beginning she was just saying no because that’s what they’d agreed upon before they made the contract,” I explained.

Mr. Masterson’s eyes zeroed in on me. “Contract?”

I nodded. “Yes.”

“So you’re telling me that Vanessa admitted that the two of them had a contract?” He asked slowly.

I nodded. “Yes,” I agreed.

“Hmmm,” he hummed. “I think that’s all. No further questions.”

I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders as I got down from the stand and made my way back to my seat.

I kept my head down, refusing to look at Vanessa’s father’s eyes, even though I knew he was still glaring daggers at me.

Once I sat, I leaned into Cleo, resting my head on his shoulder as the DA called the next witness to the stand.

“You did good, sweet girl,” Cleo murmured against my head.

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