39. Know The Truth
39
KNOW THE TRUTH
G arrett was up quickly and dashing after Justine.
Karly had paused the video and was talking to Jordan.
He saw Justine running down the hall toward the bathroom, caught up with her, and brought her in. He didn’t care if there were other women in there or not.
“Deep breaths,” he said calmly.
“Fuck the breaths,” she said. “I just watched my father get murdered on video.”
She was sobbing and he pulled her into his arms. “Shhhh,” he said. “I know. I know. It’s hard. You knew it was coming. Jordan is right. You needed to see it yourself. You needed to know the truth.”
“He didn’t deserve that,” she said, crying and holding onto his shirt as if it was the only thing anchoring her to stay upright.
He wanted her to sit down, but there was nowhere that he felt was sanitary to do in here. He would not let her sit on the tile floor.
The door opened and he turned to see his cousin Hailey Bond Knight come in. “Bring her to my office to lie down,” Hailey said. “Come on.”
He helped Justine walk and shielded her from any eyes, but there weren’t many.
He passed Roark’s office and moved with Hailey a few doors down.
“Thanks,” he said when he sat with Justine on the couch.
“I don’t know what to do,” she said. She hiccuped as she tried to catch her breath. He didn’t want her to pass out.
“You’re going to lie down and I’m going to get you whatever you want to drink,” Hailey said. “Then we are going to leave you alone in here or we can get your sister on the phone. You need a few minutes alone.”
“I’ll stay with her,” he rushed out to say.
“No, Garrett,” Hailey said gently as she shook her head. “Let her process things. I know it’s in your nature to stay, but she might need to gather herself. Right, Justine?”
Justine nodded.
“I don’t want to leave her,” he said. It went against everything he stood for.
“Nothing will happen to her here,” Hailey said. His cousin pushed him out the door and then closed it. “I’ll stay right here and can go in if she needs me. Go back to see Roark. Let Justine’s sister know what is going on.”
He reluctantly moved a few doors down to Roark’s office.
“Is she okay?” Karly asked. “Maybe I should have said more of what she was going to see, but I know she knew what happened and saw pictures of the scene.”
“She’ll be fine,” he said. Because he had to believe that. “I think just hearing her father’s voice and seeing it was a lot to take in, even though she knew the outcome.”
“That is what I said,” Jordan said. He could see Justine’s sister on the screen now. “Is she okay? I mean really, is she? I know she was white and I didn’t want her to pass out.”
“She’s lying down,” he said. “In another office and someone is outside the door if she needs anything. Do you want to talk to her? Do you want me to bring you down there?”
“No,” Jordan said. “She’ll come to me when she’s ready. I trust that. She does need a few minutes. She will hate that she just broke down and ran like that and is going to feel embarrassed over it too.”
“She shouldn’t feel that way,” he said. “I’m not sure how she sat through it. I don’t think I could have if it were my father.”
He was almost as ill as her watching it and didn’t even know the man.
But he knew the woman he loved and that she was struggling over it herself.
He turned his head when Justine came back in with Hailey next to her.
“I tried to tell her it was fine to lie there, but she said no. She needed to finish this,” Hailey said.
“I knew you’d come back,” Jordan said. “Faster than I thought though.”
“I need this over with,” she said. “Dad is going to get justice and I want to see Elise’s face when this comes out. I want to hear what the DA and the detective say too.”
“That’s my sister,” Jordan said proudly. “Then you and I can grieve together again.”
“We need to do a lot of things,” she said. “But right now, I want to fast forward this next hour and then go home and try to pretend it doesn’t exist for a bit.”
“We’ll do that,” Garrett said. “I promise.”
Justine had to work on Sunday night, but they were going to stay in Boston for the weekend. He’d try to take her mind off of this as much as he could, though he didn’t know that was possible.
They sat there and listened to some more things that were found on the tape, but nothing was as damning as that proof that this wasn’t self-defense at all.
After the call to the DA and detective, he and Justine left and drove back to his place.
“That was like out of a movie,” she said. “I hope I don’t continue to see it again and again when I close my eyes.”
He hoped that for her sake too, but something told him that might not be the case.
How many nightmares had he had over the past year with everything that he’d gone through? And he didn’t witness what she had to a loved one.
“We’ll get you through it,” he said.
“Thank you, Garrett. I’m not sure how I could have gotten through that without you today. I know you don’t need that added to your stress.”
“Stop,” he said. “Don’t go there. There was no way I was letting you watch that alone. You heard the DA. This is lock solid. There most likely won’t even be a trial. They are going to show Elise and her attorney the video and offer her a deal most likely.”
“I don’t want her to have a deal,” she said. “I want her to go to prison.”
“And she will,” he said. “But if she pleads guilty there won’t be a trial and just sentencing. It will save you the heartache. You know she was drunk. There is no way she was fully aware of her actions just because she wasn’t slurring her words or staggering around.”
“Don’t make excuses for her,” she said sharply.
“Never,” he said gently. “But they are going to use all of that. You heard Roark. It’s what he’d do. It’s obvious Elise has a substance abuse problem. She’ll get cleaned up. All those things.”
“She’ll get clean in jail. I don’t care if I have to use every bit of my father’s money to make sure she ends up locked up.”
“You know she will,” he said. “Let the process work. It’s only a matter of time now.”
He watched as she sniffled some and the tears silently rolled down her cheeks.
“I know,” she said. “And my father’s name can be cleared now. But some of it won’t be. He will continue to be talked about because he didn’t leave her. Why didn’t he leave her?”
“Love does stupid shit to people,” he said. “He said he loved her still.”
“And that love got him killed,” she said, turning her head to look out the window. “I want to never forgive him for that.”
“Don’t do that to yourself,” he said firmly. “Don’t put more on your shoulders to deal with. No one knows how they are going to react in those situations.”
“My father obviously feared for his safety and life if he got a gun. And that bothers me. If he had to go to those extremes he should have kicked her out.”
“You don’t know that maybe he wasn’t going to do that,” he said. “You don’t know anything and you won’t now. So don’t try to put thoughts or actions in your head.”
“You’re right,” she said after a few seconds. “That pertains to you too.”
“What?” he asked.
She turned to look back at him as he drove through traffic toward his condo.
“I said, that pertains to you too. Don’t put thoughts or actions in your head that you have no control over or how they may or may not have turned out. You can’t do anything more than you are with your lawsuit right now.”
He sighed. “There is no reason to talk about that.”
When Justine was in the bathroom, Roark had told him that so far nothing new had come up. He felt Zach’s family was hoping for a quick payout, but Garrett was holding strong and so far his two colleagues were too.
But how much stronger they could all stand was yet to be determined.
He knew he’d be fine, but would the other two?
And if even one of them caved, the other two would be at risk.
“You can’t avoid it either,” she said.
“I’m not avoiding it,” he said. “There is a time and place and it’s not now. This is about what you just went through and me being there for you so that you can pull it out on the other end.”
“I can,” she said. “You know why?”
“Why?” he asked.
She reached for his hand. “Because you’re going to be with me.”
“I am,” he whispered. “Don’t forget it either.”