Phoedgeworth #2 ~ Turnabout Trust

I tried to move my leg and my body contorted in pain. "I just.. Need... A pair of... Gloves..." My eyes flitted to the small 'bedside' table by the bedroom door. The gloves were left lying dismally on top of it. Nice. I just had to make my way ALL the way across the room to the door and I'd be fine. Ha ha ha... Fantastic. I rolled my eyes and tried to shift my torso slightly to the right (toward the edge of the bed nearest to the door.) I clucked my tongue in agony as my leg felt like it was on fire. "Only one thing for it..." I hissed anxiously, sweating ferociously as I realised what I'd have to do.

'Here I go...'

I ignored the IMMENSE pain running through me as I flung my leg sharply over the edge of the bed and rose to my feet. "AHH!" I shrieked as every bone in my body felt like it was breaking at once. I was in hell. The world blurred around me and I screeched and hissed and cried and sighed. I stumbled forwards to the table, knocking my leg against it accidentally and howling in pain as I forced myself to pick up the gloves. My legs were buckling and I had seconds to get back to the bed before I collapsed. A headache started and my eyes were pounding. I leapt. I leapt onto the bed and seeped with agony as a million sharp needles bit my skin at once and I shook my head, crying and screaming, begging for it to stop. Eventually, the searing pain begun to fade and became more of a tiny nipping sensation rippling across my body. I managed to struggle into a sitting position (by half DRAGGING myself across the bed and propping myself back up with the support of the cushions) whilst cursing violently. I had the gloves. That was all that mattered. "Ehhh..." I groaned. I trembled as I slipped them on after a few goes, my heart pounding as blood surged around my body. I reached for the tiny bubblegum-pink, dog-eared notebook. I opened the page gingerly and rummaged around in my blazer pocket for my pencil. Once I had it in my shaky grasp, I poised it half a centimetre above the page, pausing and wondering whether I should do this or not. I shrugged.

'What does it matter? It wouldn't HURT to try... Here goes...'

I stared down at the page blankly as I allowed the pencil to lightly shade over the paper. Just as I thought, the imprint of her previous writing on the page above came out clear as day. "What's this...?" I muttered, dumbfounded by the scrawling my trick had revealed. The paper said:
Joshua -
Griffin -
Eddie -
Aaron -
Ricky -
Lorenzo -
Phoenix
I frowned. They seemed to be names... MY name was on there. They all had a dash next to them except MINE... "What..." There was no hint in my voice that it was a question. In the pit of my stomach, I understood the writing. I refused what I'd insinuated, though. I didn't WANT to believe it. My eyes then flitted to the very bottom of the page;
Volietxr
What did that mean? I really WAS confused at that one. It didn't make sense.. I just frowned even more and slammed the notebook shut. I had to do one last thing to another piece of evidence. I put the notebook to one side and reached for the phone, automatically pressing the 'on' button. "Hm.." I mumbled to myself as the phone-manufacturers' company slogan came up: 'Only the best can shine.' "Kinda cheesy..." I laughed light heartedly. It WAS a weird slogan. As soon as the phone turned on, I grimaced at all the buzzing notifications and bombarding ringtones. Even the BACKGROUND looked chaotic: some sort of selfie taken at a nightclub with... Another, blonde haired girl. I raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

'Time to look at these messages, I think.'

It wasn't like me to be prying into others' private business, but this was an INVESTIGATION. I felt a NEED to. I opened the messages tab and was surprised to see an ongoing flood of texts. "Nngh... Just how popular IS this woman?!" I grunted as I skimmed through them - some were just scam advertisements saying stuff like; 'You've had a car injury!' Or; 'You've won a free IPad!' I deleted those willingly and pretty damn quickly, too. I then moved onto the interesting part. Her personal messages. Some were from the late Griffin. I read them and they went something like this;
Violetta: Hey Sweetie! Please could you come to Phoenix's office now, it's your 'turn' to be interrogated. See you soon!
Griffin: Ok darling, on my way..
(After the interrogations)
Violetta: Oh I'm terribly sorry, darling, but you know I said we'd meet up at Tres Bien after your interrogation?
Griffin: Yeah? I'm on my way, by the way...
Violetta: There's been a slight change of plan... Please could you come to 21 Mallaby Street?
Griffin: Oh, sure. Is that your house?
After that, there was no more conversation between them. I felt a lump in my throat. That must've been the period of time before she came to Edgeworth's office to see me. The time when she killed Griffin in cold blood. This was important, definitive proof. I felt sick, but continued reading other threads of conversation. I began with her past boyfriends (only the last day's conversation for each);

Joshua's last day's conversation:
Violetta: Hey honey, want to meet up today?!
Joshua: Of course! Where do you want to go?
Violetta: Well, your house would be great! :)
Joshua: Ok! Awesome, there's no one around today so that's perfect! See you there <3
(There was no more conversation between Joshua and Violetta after that)

Eddie's last day's conversation:
Violetta: Hi Ed! Want to see me today?
Eddie: You bet! Where'd ya wanna go?
Violetta: Hmm... Maybe.. Your house?
Eddie: Ok! At 5:00pm??
Violetta: Yeah, yeah, sure. Cya!
(There was no more conversation between Eddie and Violetta after that)

All the conversations followed the same pattern. They all started with Violetta saying something like: 'Hi! Want to meet up?' and ended up with them agreeing for her to go to their houses. I raised an eyebrow, remembering how in all their cases they were murdered in their houses... All of them except Griffin. He'd been murdered in a random house. "Mm..." I scrolled through the waterfall of texts until I found a contact with a female name. The name was: 'Alyssa Goldberg'. I opened the chat and skimmed through their last day's conversation:
Violetta: Sis, how did it go between you and Ricky? He seemed kinda... Cold afterwards..
Alyssa: You're together, aren't you?!
Violetta: Um... Answer my question first.
Alyssa: He's just another one on the pile, isn't he?!
Violetta: Hey, Al, you know it's not like that...
Alyssa: No! You always treat me like I don't understand what's going on! What you're doing is WRONG. I don't care how much debt you're in!!!
Violetta: Alyssa... Don't make me do something you'll regret...
Alyssa: Oh SURE! I don't care! I'm telling someone! I know what you're doing... Taking their money isn't right!
Violetta: ALYSSA. Don't you DARE!
Alyssa: You can't say much, Yuna... I know what you did to mum and dad!
Violetta: No... You can't... How did you find out?!
(There was no more conversation between Alyssa and Violetta after that)

I sat and stared for a while. 'I know what you did to mum and dad!'
What did Violetta do...? Why did this 'Alyssa' call Violetta 'Yuna'? Was that Violetta's real name?

Why did Violetta call Alyssa 'sis'?

Some of these questions had obvious answers, but some didn't. I turned the phone off and tossed it into the bed carelessly. I groaned in agony as my headache from when I stood up and got the gloves came back to haunt me.

I let a small, pleasureful smile spread across my lips as my mind numbed and I was plunged into darkness.