tw: mentions of sexual assault, physical assault, and stalking. does not go into detail about the first two.

"Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?"

"I do."

"You may be seated."

Kennedy adjusted her skirt as she sat down in the witness stand, trying not to appear as nervous as she felt. The first round of questions was going to come from Hotchky, not Karl, and that gave Kennedy a small semblance of calm in her chest. It wasn't much but knowing that she was going to be answering to a friendly face first helped put her mind at ease.

"Miss Abrams, tell me about your relationship with Hank Wilcox."

Deep breaths, Kennedy tried not to think about the dozens, if not hundreds, of eyes trained on her, I'm gonna answer this question. One at a time. One at a time. This question first, and then the next, and then everyone will be able to see how I was justified. How I had no other choice.

"Miss Abrams?" Brianne prodded gently.

"I met Hank at a bar when I was a sophomore in college," Kennedy began quickly, stumbling over her words a bit, "He had just spoken at my school, and we ended up at the same bar afterwards. He was very kind and complimentary when we met, and we started dating a little bit after that. I knew he was married, but his wife was in Florida, and in my head his marriage wasn't happy—I didn't know how it actually was. I don't say that to justify dating a married man, but just to answer potential questions in everyone's minds."

She took another deep breath as Hotchky nodded encouragingly, conveniently standing directly in front of Jaxson and blocking him from Kennedy's sight.

"We began dating in September of 2019. He would come up to Clemson to see me or take me to a hotel or a dinner at least an hour away. Sometimes we would meet in the middle. But this all continued for about eight months, until..." she trailed off, hoping that Elizabeth wasn't in the room. "...until he told me he was planning to leave his wife for me."

A small gasp came from the back of the room and Kennedy felt a wave of shame wash over her. Elizabeth was there. And she was about to hear a lot worse things about her former husband.

"What happened then?" Brianne asked.

"I told him I wanted to break up. That I wasn't comfortable with him leaving his wife of over a decade for me, a college kid who was just dating for fun. I didn't want the pressure of him having something to hold over me. I could just picture 'I left my wife for you' being used against me whenever I disagreed with him, for the rest of my life. Or 'I left my wife for you, you can't leave me' if I moved on and wanted to end things. I figured it would be easier and cleaner to just end it right then and there. So I did. I ended the relationship in May 2019, and that was that."

Brianne nodded, "Did you speak with Mr. Wilcox again after your relationship ended?"

"Objection, Your Honor," Jaxson stood, "She's leading the witness."

Judge Adamson looked over at ADA Karl with the most annoyed expression Kennedy had ever seen.

"Which part of that question was leading, Mr. Karl?"

Jaxson was silent for a moment.

"Saying—"

"Overruled." Adamson interrupted him, "Stop wasting my and the court's time, ADA Karl."

"Yes, Your Honor."

"Go ahead and answer the question, Miss Abrams." The judge turned back to Kennedy and she swore she could see some semblance of pity in the woman's expression.

"Thank you, Your Honor." Kennedy nodded. She didn't know if she had to thank the judge, but it seemed like the lawyers were all doing it, so she figured it couldn't hurt.

Unless she thinks I'm a kissass now.

Kennedy collected herself quickly and turned to face the jury.

"After I ended my relationship with Hank, he began calling me constantly, and wouldn't stop until I either picked up or it got to be past a certain time when his wife would have noticed. I only picked up a few times, and only to tell him to stop bothering me. He began texting as well, and when I finally blocked his number, he got a new phone and started up again. The very last time that I picked up the phone, he revealed to me that he had been friends with my father for a long time, which he had kept hidden throughout our time together. He was also a major benefactor to my father's plastic surgery business, and said that if I didn't get back together with him, he would immediately pull all donations to my father's business.

"He did do that. Instead of telling my father the true reason behind it, he informed him that I had stolen from him, from Hank. After my father called me in a rage, I went to the police and tried to file a restraining order, but they informed me that due to jurisdictional issues, I couldn't get one...but I overheard a few of them talking about how there was 'no way' that a rich, famous philanthropist was stalking me.

"I moved in early August and changed my number so that he had no way of finding me, but he still did. In late August of this year, he found me when I was walking into the gym that I used to go to. He threatened me and tried to force me into his car to go back to Tampa with him, but I managed to escape, and ran into the gym and straight into the girl's locker room. I stayed there for two hours, until I was sure he had to have left. I stopped going to that gym after that."

Brianne was nodding. They had discussed Kennedy specifically using the word 'escape' during her testimony, to enforce the jury's image of Hank as a predator.

"But he found where I lived, and started coming to my apartment, almost nightly, until the night that Violet, my neighbor, came out and called the cops on him. After that, he didn't stop by again and I thought I was safe."

"Did you have contact with him after that?" Hotchky asked.

"Unfortunately, yes." Kennedy nodded, "He found me through a social media account he made, even though I had blocked him on everything. He started threatening me and saying that he would break into my apartment one night and bring me back to him."

"Your Honor," Brianne walked back to the defense table and picked up two packets of paper. She dropped one unceremoniously on the prosecution's table in front of ADA Karl, and turned to the judge.

"Permission to approach?"

"Permission granted."

Brianne spoke as she walked up to the judge.

"I move to enter Defense Exhibit D, a series of screenshots from Miss Abrams's conversations and interactions with Mr. Wilcox, into evidence."

"Are there any objections to the counsel's motion?" Adamson asked Jaxson, who shook his head dejectedly while flipping through the pages, "Motion approved."

Brianne pulled up a rolling television that had been in the back corner of the room during the entire trial and connected her laptop to it before clicking it on with a small remote. The first image on the screen was a photo taken of Kennedy's phone by another phone to prove that it was not a manufactured image, alongside a zoomed-in image of Kennedy's call log.

The call log was from just one night in July 2020, and each call shown was an incoming call from Hank Wilcox. There was a small image under the screenshot showing that the number calling did indeed belong to Hank.

"Miss Abrams, can you tell us what these pictures are as I go through them?"

"Yes ma'am." Kennedy nodded. "This is my call history from one night in July. Hank called every five minutes for over three hours."

Brianne clicked on to the next slide. The same sort of side-by-side pictures appeared, this time of text messages from what appeared to be the same night in July.

"Those are text messages from Hank," Kennedy said, scanning them quickly. Reading them again after all these months made her nauseous. "'Stop sending me to voicemail.' 'I don't know why you won't just pick up the damn phone.' 'I just want to talk, stop avoiding me.' 'I love you, Kennedy. Don't make me do something we'll both regret.'" The last word of the last text caught in her throat as she said it and her heartrate started to pick up. She remembered that night specifically. The 'don't make me do something we'll both regret' part made her entire body tense up in fear, despite the fact that she knew the man was dead.

These weren't the texts we practiced going through, Kennedy thought as she looked over at Brianne in clear pain. Hotchky was looking back at her, nodding along, and Kennedy realized that she much have switched the texts to get a reaction out of Kennedy for the jury to see.

I'm not a huge fan of that.

"And this one?" Brianne asked, skipping to the third slide.

"That's from the night that he threatened to break into my apartment," Kennedy nodded, staring at another two side-by-side images, the one on the right showing her entire phone and the one on the left zoomed in further. They were social media DMs between Kennedy and Hank from early September, soon before she had formulated her plan to get back at him. The account name didn't say anything about Hank, but there were images at the bottom of the screen with IP numbers and other things Kennedy didn't understand that proved it was indeed him.

Kennedy began to read the messages, all from Hank.

"'Ken. Don't make this more difficult than it has to be.' 'I love you. I'm doing this because I love you. Why can't you see that?' 'I know where you're living now. I will come by again.' 'This time, I'm not leaving until you leave with me.' 'The next time I come will be the last.'"

Brianne turned off the television and turned back to Kennedy.

"Did you show these texts to anyone?"

Kennedy shook her head.

"No. The last time I went to the police about Hank, they didn't believe me. And then when Violet called them a few nights before those texts, they didn't even write a report. I didn't trust them. I didn't think they would help me."

"So, what did you do instead?"

"I thought up a plan to scare Hank into leaving me alone. I thought that if he didn't see me as a defenseless young girl, he would back off and I would have my life back."

"What were your intentions with this plan?"

"I just wanted to scare him. I told him to meet me on a road that we had driven down in Tampa a lot when we were together. I wanted to look like I was going to hurt him with my car and then he would see that I wasn't joking around."

"And what happened instead?"

"I was driving down the road, and was very anxious. I wanted to scare him, but I was also terrified of what he could do to me if I didn't get away in time. I started to speed up involuntarily, and Rebecca, who was with me, kept talking to me about directions and not getting lost. Eventually, when I saw him standing in the road right on the other side of a sharp turn, I was going too fast to stop in time before I hit him."

"And why didn't you call the police then?"

Kennedy shook her head, tears starting to fall down her cheeks. She was sure Brianne loved that, but they were completely real. She hated telling this story. She hated being in court. She hated it more when the two were put together.

"I didn't know what to do," she said, "Rebecca didn't know anything about my history with Hank, and I hadn't thought I would do anything like this when I tried to scare him, and I had never been in a situation even remotely similar to this before." The tears started coming faster, "So, I told Rebecca to get in the car, and we went...we went back to the Airbnb. We went back to the Airbnb and I got the car fixed, and we went home. And I ordered her not to say anything. And then...and then everything blew up. I didn't want to kill him. I wanted to scare him. Because I was at the point where I couldn't think of anything else to do, and no one believed me, and...and...and..."

"Take a few deep breaths, Miss Abrams," Judge Adamson said kindly, "No rush."

Kennedy nodded and focused on her breathing for a second, calming herself down. The crying began to slow, and she felt capable of speaking again.

"Miss Abrams," Hotchky looked at her for their final question, "Did you feel that your life was in immediate danger due to the words and actions of Hank Wilcox?"

Kennedy nodded, sitting up tall.

"Yes."

"I have no further questions for this witness." Brianne said, turning and walking back to the defense table. When she sat down, she gave Kennedy two thumbs up and mouthed 'Good job!' with a giant smile on her face.

"ADA Karl?"

Jaxson stood and Kennedy felt all her anxieties come rushing back. She hated that man. She hated him more than she could explain in words.

"Thank you, Your Honor," Jaxson grinned, turning to Kennedy as if she were a steak dinner, "Miss Abrams, why didn't you at least call the police before fleeing the scene?"

"Like I said, no one believed me when I tried telling them he was threatening me. I didn't think they would be any kinder now that I had accidentally killed him."

"And you evaded law enforcement and any repercussions for your actions for over a month before you were arrested?"

"Yes."

"You didn't find this to be psychologically harmful to your victim's family, in particular his widow?"

Kennedy raised her eyebrows.

"I was not thinking about the psychological harm done to his wife. I was dealing with coming to terms with everything that happened to me, along with the fact that I had accidentally killed someone who I used to care for."

"I see," Jaxson mused, "And you don't think that this is convenient timing to be coming forward about your victim's alleged harassment of you?"

"Objection, counsel is using inflammatory language towards the witness."

"Sustained." Adamson said before Karl could get a chance to rebut, "Rephrase your question, ADA Karl."

"Yes, Your Honor." Jaxson nodded shortly, "Miss Abrams, why didn't you come forward about Mr. Wilcox allegedly harassing you before now?"

Kennedy fought the urge to ask him if he had been paying attention at all.

"He stalked me. And I did go forward. I went to the police, twice, and they didn't listen to me. I didn't expect them to magically hear me out the third time around."

"Does this have anything to do with the 'Me Too' fad that's been in recently?"

"Counsel." Adamson interjected sharply, "You will not undermine or speak negatively of victims of sexual assault using their voice to speak up in my courtroom, or I will hold you in contempt. You will especially not do so while questioning a witness who has provided evidence of her stalking and harassment allegations to this court. Am I understood?"

Jaxson's eyes were wide, and he nodded, stunned.

"Yes, Your Honor."

"And while we're on the topic," the judge spoke to the courtroom at large, "I will also not tolerate derogatory remarks towards anyone based on sex, race, religion, gender identity, or sexual orientation in my courtroom. I thought that went without saying, but perhaps I was wrong." She turned back to Karl, "You may continue."

Jaxson seemed to have collected himself and turned back to face Kennedy.

"Miss Abrams, did you kill Hank Wilcox?"

Kennedy nodded.

"Yes."

"And said without an ounce of remorse." Jaxson chuckled.

"Objecti—"

"Withdrawn!" Jaxson called out airily, heading back for the prosecution's table. "I have no further questions for the defendant, Your Honor."

"You may step down, Miss Abrams." Adamson said. "We will not see each other tomorrow, but will reconvene on Thursday morning at 10:00 to hear closing arguments from both sides, beginning with the state. Thank you."

Everyone stood as she left the room and Kennedy turned slowly to look at Brianne.

"Did I—"

In the first show of human emotion or empathy that Kennedy had seen from her, Brianne threw her arms around Kennedy and hugged her.

"You were perfect." She said, and when she pulled away Kennedy could see tears in her eyes, "You were perfect." She repeated, "Thank you for being strong enough to testify when so many of us aren't."

Us.

"Us?" Kennedy asked softly.

Brianne nodded, her eyes full of pride and pain simultaneously.

"Us."

A/N: Hi! This chapter, especially the ending, was really important to me. I think that when people talk about sexual assault in offhanded ways, they often don't realize that there are most likely multiple people listening to them who have experienced what they're making jokes about. It was important to me to have Judge Adamson unequivocally shut that down, and for Kennedy to realize that she had allies in unexpected places. Anyway. I hope you liked the chapter. 🙂