39. Chapter 39
Chapter thirty-nine
W hile still in the parking lot, Eliza thought it was a good idea to talk to Chet alone. She asked Judas to wait for her in the car even though he protested heavily. Still, she insisted. Now, sitting in the room alone, she felt like maybe she should have let him win that little argument.
As an attorney, this was far from the first time she had sat in that chair. She had spent the better part of her adult life in and out of rooms just like that one. She made deals, she passed judgment, and she comforted the wrongly accused. The room felt like nothing more than familiar territory, but was also so different.
Everything was colder than she remembered it being. The stark grey of the concrete walls. The sleek metal of the table in front of her. The damp air blasting from the overhead vents. Her own heart. All of it frigid and her body trembled as the cold permeated into her bones.
She wrapped her arms tighter around herself, watching the door as she awaited the arrival of one of her most beloved family members. The idea that she would ever be here with Chet Branson sitting on the other side of the table seemed impossible to her just yesterday. But, there she was; knowing that the man she grew up with, the man that helped raise her and played a more fatherly role in her life than Paul ever had, just confessed to attempted murder.
Allowing the feeling to wash over her in waves of remorse and pain, she was startled as the heavy clang of the door announced Chet's entrance. Coming into the room with a defiant posture, the second he saw Eliza sitting before him his shoulders dropped and his stoic expression turned to one of immense shame. His head hung to his chest and Chet avoided all eye contact as he shuffled to the table, taking his seat across from Eliza.
His voice was soft and sounded on the verge of tears as he spoke, "They told me my attorney was here."
"Just little old me," she replied.
"Eliza," his eyes still locked on the cold, hard floor, "I don't know what you want me to say."
She took a deep breath, releasing it slowly, "I want you to tell me everything."
Chet huffed out a sardonic laugh, "No, you don't. Trust me when I say this. You don't want to hear this from me. I love you, Eliza, and that is exactly why I won't do that to you."
Leaning her elbows on the table, Eliza moved closer, "I know about Dr. Dupree."
Chet's head jerked up and his nostrils flared as he sucked in a sharp breath. He didn’t speak, but Eliza saw the thoughts and questions swirling in his mind.
"I did some digging and I went to her. I know what he's done, but I need your confirmation." She swallowed back the last bits of fear in her gut before laying it all on the table, "I am willing to represent you and make sure you don't lose any more time with Reba and the kids, but I need your full honesty first. I need to know every detail of what happened."
He stared across the table at her for what felt like an eternity. He considered every possibility and contemplated all his options. Then dropping his head into his hands, Chet wept. She watched as his shoulders shook from the sobs wracking his body and waited patiently until he was ready.
After several long minutes, he leaned back in his chair, staring at the ceiling, "God help me. Eliza, I didn't even think. I just reacted. I saw red and I knew I had to kill him. I fully intended to let him die on the floor. I wanted him to die and rot in hell for what he did."
Eliza nodded her understanding as she watched the tears pouring uncontrollably from his face.
"He ruined her life, Eliza," he choked out as sobs overtook him again. "He took away her innocence. He fucking put his hands on her and stole a piece of who she could have been for the rest of her life."
Eliza squirmed in her chair. She fully expected Chet to tell her that he found the banking materials, that he put the pieces together just as she did. She expected to hear that he was disgusted with the man he thought was a friend and just acted without thinking. She raised a hand to cover her mouth as the true gravity of this situation began to sink in.
Chet shook his head in disgust, "And then… then that goddamn doctor of his almost killed her. When she told us, Eliza… I lost it. What else was I supposed to do?" His voice rose as he looks Eliza in the eye, "He fucking raped her and then paid for some back alley abortion and she almost fucking died!"
The volume and weight of his words slapped Eliza across the face and her voice quaked, "Uncle Chet… who… who did he do that to?"
Chet closed his eyes as he realized how little Eliza knew. The words stuck in the back of his throat and he shook his head. When he was finally able to speak again, his words were dripping with heavy layers of anguish and ruin, "It was Neveah. My fucking seventeen-year-old daughter! I trusted that son of a bitch for decades and he fucking raped my daughter, Eliza!"
Eliza opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. She heard the heavy thud of her pulse pounding in her head. The edges of her vision blurred as tears filled her eyes. Suddenly, she wasn’t cold anymore because a white hot rage boiled inside of her. Her heart was shattered but her mind was set. She reached across the table and placed one hand on Chet's arm. He glanced up at her and she saw the toll this had taken on him. He was a broken man and there was no one to blame for that but Paul Arthur. Eliza cleared her throat, summoning every ounce of self-control in her body to keep herself from falling apart. There would be time for that, but she couldn’t let it happen yet. She had too much work to do before she let the gravity of this truth tear her apart.
Squeezing Chet's arm, she made her uncle a promise, "I will make sure you are put in front of a judge immediately and bail is set. I will make sure that bail is paid in full from Paul's account. I will represent you every step of the way and I will make sure you don't serve a single day. What you did is nothing more than a public service and I wish you had succeeded."
***
Judas couldn’t stand the thought of waiting for her in the car. He waited until she was safely inside then walked himself inside as well. Planting himself directly across from the access door he knew she would return out of and he watched, not allowing his eyes to stray from the doorway for even a second. When Eliza returned he would be ready for whatever reality came with her.
After what felt like a millennia, she emerged and his heart sank. Whatever she learned had ravaged her. Her normal flushed cheeks were pale and devoid of life. She looked like the shell of a person.
Judas rose to his feet, rushing to her side. Eliza's face didn’t react as it usually did when she saw him. She simply stared ahead and took his hand as she marched toward the exit.
Once outside, Judas pulled her arm gently, forcing her to look at him, "Hey, what happened? You're not okay right now."
Eliza pursed her lips as she contemplated what she could bear to share at that moment. She knew if she even tried to tell him what she just learned she would crumble into a useless pile of heartbreak and she couldn’t afford to do that yet.
She shook her head, "I can't talk about this yet."
Concern creased his forehead, "Ahava, whatever this is, we can navigate it together."
She felt the threat of tears but shook them away, "No. No, Judas. I can't yet. If I do, I’ll fall apart and I can't do that yet. I have some things I need to do. When that is finished, we will talk."
The frustration of knowing she was holding in so much just to keep herself afloat was nearly unbearable, but he understood time is something she needed from him, "I'm not happy about that, but whatever you need. Until then, what can I do?"
She breathed in and out several times before walking to the car, "I have to run a couple of errands and I need to do them alone. Can you—"
"Eliza, I'm not letting you shoulder this alone," he interjected.
She stopped, turning to face him, "Look, what I just learned in there is so much worse than I even thought it could be. I need to do some things and I need to do them alone. I'm not asking. I'm telling you that this is what I'm doing. If you want to help, you can go to the hospital and you can stand guard outside Paul's room. You don't have to go in and he doesn't even need to know you're there. Just be there. In case."
Did she just call her father by his name?
He frowned. "Is he in danger? I thought it was just Chet involved. Who should I be watching for?"
Eliza huffed a bitter laugh, "Me, Judas. I need you to guard the door from me and I'm not even joking. I am going to try my very best to go do what I need to do without going there to see him, but I need you there to stop me if I fail. If I show up at that hospital, you have to stop me or I am going to end up right back in that jail, but I'll be on the other side of the table because I will kill him. I will march right into that room and I will finish the goddamn job."
The pain in her voice was palpable and he believed every word she spoke. Judas pulled her into a crushing embrace. Kissing her hair, he whispered, "Okay, Ahava. I will be there."