[discontinued] I'm Listening... (Book 4 of the Can't Say series.)

Avi:

He... he pleaded guilty... he would've never done such a thing in the past... what changed in him? Does he finally realise what he's done? Or... is it... just me?

Our lawyers took the stand. My lawyer first.

"Your honour, my client has been put through hell and back by the defendant not to mention the case of getting his friend involved in the recent kidnapping--"

"Objection, your honour, my client had no intentions of involving anybody in his business apart from the acusant, anybody else involved was primarily a mistake."

"Regardless, the defendant has clearly put other lives in danger as well as the life of my client, whom of which he has threatened multiple times and made a direct attempt to harming others in the shoot out that took place in the Sahara a few months prior."

"He had no intentions of hurting people, only scaring them off."

"Tell that to the mourning families of all the Algerian Police he killed. Your honour, this man is highly capable of all accusations made towards him, looking back at his file, not only that, another police officer who is a part of this force has witnessed all he had done over the past few months."

"Thank you, Ms Dornder, Mr Klained."

The judge nodded to one of the women sat in front of him stood up.

"The court would like to ask the defendant, Daniel Rindler, to take the stand."

I watched him walk towards the stand, a man holding out a bible towards him, Daniel raising his right hand.

"Do you swear to tell the truth so help you, God?"

"I do."

He took the stand as a woman walked up to question him.

"Mr Rindler, could you tell the court about the first time you met Mr Kaplan?"

He looked at me, us making eye contact, he looked back to her.

"We met in a coffee shop, sometime around July... he was sitting in the corner by himself he looked... alone, miserable, just upset. We made eye contact and... I fell in love..."

Bullshit.

"I got my order and walked over to his table and asked if the seat opposite him was taken and if I could sit with him. He said yes, we introduced and went from there..."

"And could you tell us about the first sexual encounter you had with him?"

"... After we had been disconnected for a few months... I think... I took him to my home and... it happened there. He wasn't sure if he'd like it and I told him he had to try it first. He said he wasn't sure about it after and I told him to give it some time. I still don't know how he feels about it."

He looked at me so innocently... I scowled.

"And every time after that?"

"It was just us fooling about... I thought if we kept doing it, he'd grow used to it because he said he was always uncomfortable before during and after it. Clearly not if he's filing rape charges."

"Just you two? Evidence shows that it was your friends too, who 'fooled about' with him."

I hated how they talked about me like I wasn't there. I felt a hand on mine and looked over, Kevin's way of comforting me recently. I played with his fingers, distracting myself.

"i wouldn't do that to someone i loved... i actually care- and still do- care about avi... they just... somehow managed to get him without my knowledge."