Chapter 28 #2
‘Why do you think she visited Hunt Ranch instead of staying with me? Why do you think I couldn’t stay but only visited on weekends?
’ Markus demanded. ‘Why do you think I had to stage a freaking photoshoot just to spend more than those weekends with her?’ He sighed deeply.
‘I’ve been Nina’s best friend for years, and she still can’t lean on me.
And not because she doesn’t want to or need to, but because she very literally doesn’t know how.
‘She needs you to be there tomorrow, Mav. As the one person who knows her better than you, I’m telling you that she won’t get through it without both of us there …’
‘Markus, I don’t know what to do.’ Because how could he show up when she’d asked for space?
He already felt uncomfortable about creating the Instagram account, but the way he figured it, she could have just ignored him there if she’d really wanted to.
But she hadn’t, he reminded himself. She’d followed him back, and even though they hadn’t messaged each other online, he’d felt connected to her the moment she had.
‘I know that,’ Markus insisted. ‘But I won’t let myself feel guilty for it because I know her. And because it’s been my job for the last decade to teach her how to accept love. Please, Maverick. Please come.’
He’d have had a hard time staying away without the push from Markus. But with Nina’s request still on the forefront of his mind, he said, ‘I’ll be there. But I won’t approach her in public unless she makes the first move. She set boundaries, Markus. I have to respect them – even if I hate them.’
‘I think that’s fair,’ Markus ceded. ‘I’ll ask Linda to get you a pass. If you coordinate picking it up with her in the morning …’
‘Yeah, thanks.’
‘Okay. Bye.’
‘Bye.’
The next morning, Maverick left the ranch at five a.m. so that he could be on time, and because he’d gotten there early, he’d driven around for close to forty minutes before parking and making his way to the courthouse.
Due to the celebrity nature of the case, the judge had restricted public access; however, that didn’t stop the media from crowding the courthouse steps.
The moment they spotted Mav, they descended like vultures on a carcass.
‘Mr Hunt, could you verify your relationship with Nina Keller?’
Mav didn’t say a word.
‘Mr Hunt, is it true that you assaulted Alexander Cane?’
Mav desperately wanted to say, ‘Fuck yes,’ to that – but heroically refrained.
Even though he could see Nina, Linda, and Markus sitting at the front, their backs to him, he took a seat towards the back of the courtroom as he waited for the bail hearing to begin.
He felt so out of place among the suits, dressed in his blue jeans, boots, and baseball cap, but he swallowed down the skin-crawling claustrophobia and waited patiently until the case was called.
The moment it was his heart started racing. He didn’t look at Alexander Cane as he was brought out. He looked at Nina’s back, and he saw the way her shoulders rounded and her gaze dropped. It was like she was carrying an immense burden that visibly weighed her down.
He didn’t move through the bond discussion, didn’t flinch when the state pressed the judge to deny bail and argued that Cane, with his vast resources, was a flight risk.
He listened intently to Linda’s statement, which provided a brief but powerful depiction of the events of that night and called the judge to see through Alex’s polished facade to the predator beneath.
Linda recalled snippets of Alexander’s statement, and then pointedly undermined them by comparing the physical size difference between Nina and Alexander Cane.
She closed with a poignant reminder that the days of forgiving men in power for crimes against women were over.
It was only when the judge said, ‘At this time, I would like to hear from the alleged victim, if she’s able,’ that Mav leaned forward in his chair. He held his breath as Nina slowly stood. His heart broke when he heard her breath sawing through the courtroom.
For the longest time, she didn’t say anything at all, only stood there, all eyes on her, her rapid breaths telling him she was on the verge of a panic attack.
‘I’m so s-sorry,’ she stammered.
The judge nodded kindly, said, ‘Take your time, Miss Keller.’
Come on, Nina, Mav thought. You’ve got this.
As if she’d heard the frantic thought, she turned to look over her shoulder, right at him.
Her eyes widened when she saw him.
Their gazes held.
Mav gave her a single bolstering nod, and mouthed, ‘Breathe,’ as he mimed taking a big breath and expelling it slowly.
Nina’s eyes welled, but she nodded. He saw her shoulders rise with the huge inhalation. And then she turned to face the judge again.
‘If you’d prefer, I can take your statement in as written?’
‘No.’ Nina shook her head. ‘I’m ready.’
Still, she took another minute to breathe. And then she began:
‘Your Honour, my name is Nina Keller.’ Though she started off a bit wobbly, her voice grew as she continued, ‘I am the victim – the survivor – in this case, and I am here today to express my concerns regarding the potential pretrial release of Alexander Cane on bail.’
She took a long moment to compose herself.
‘On June second, Alexander Cane broke into my home.
He waited for me, and when I arrived home, he attacked me and then violated me in ways that I am still struggling to come to terms with.
I truly believe that if I had not been talking to a friend on the phone at the time of the attack – a friend who called 911 on my behalf – I would not have escaped without being raped. Or worse.
‘The trauma I experienced that day has affected every aspect of my life. I struggle to sleep. I’ve developed intense anxiety and a fear of public places.
Due to Alexander’s involvement as a producer, I haven’t been able to work or fulfil my contractual obligations on the set of Shadowlands, the film I’m currently acting in.
‘I can no longer stand to be touched, even casually, by anyone other than my closest friends.
‘I am a shadow of the woman I used to be. On some days, the woman I was only a few short weeks ago, one who was strong and successful and happy, seems like a figment of my own imagination.
‘Knowing that the person who inflicted such harm on me could be released and possibly come near me or my loved ones is exceptionally damaging to my mental health, especially considering he has done so multiple times already.
He came to see me in hospital after the assault, and the second time when he came to the place I was recuperating at afterwards.
Both times, he attempted to talk to me about what he called a “misunderstanding”, but that to me was a trauma that I will be dealing with for the rest of my life.
‘As such, I respectfully ask that you consider the impact of this case on my life and the potential threat of Alexander Cane to my – and other women’s – safety and wellbeing. I urge you to deny bail, or if bail is granted, to impose stringent conditions that will ensure my safety.
‘This is not only about me and my personal safety but also about ensuring justice and preventing further harm to others. I hope the court will act in a way that reflects the severity of Alexander’s crimes.
‘Thank you for your time and consideration.’
The judge nodded. ‘Thank you, Miss Keller.’
Nina sat back down.
Mav exhaled his own breath. He wanted to stand up and shout, ‘That’s my woman!’ in front of everybody. He wanted to pull her into his arms and never let her go again. But knowing that she had asked for space, he didn’t do any of that.
He listened to the defence attorney’s statement, which undermined everything Nina had said.
‘Your Honour, the allegations made against my client are a complete farce, a desperate attempt by a woman who craves celebrity and attention, a woman who my client romantically rejected months prior to the alleged incident.
‘Yes, Alexander Cane did go to Ms Keller’s house that night; however, he did not go there with the intention of harming her.
Quite the opposite, in fact. My client went to Ms Keller’s house to check up on her when rumours circulating on the Shadowlands set indicated that her mental health was suffering from the stress of filming. ’
Maverick’s stomach roiled with literal sickness as the lies poured into the courtroom. His eyes flickered to Nina, and although she sat straighter now, she looked brittle. Breakable.
He wanted to go to her. He wanted to hold her and tell her that everything was going to be all right. But he couldn’t because she had drawn that line clearly. And that crushed him.
‘Unfortunately for my client, when he arrived at Ms Keller’s residence, she attempted to seduce him, and when Alexander Cane informed her that he was in a committed relationship, Ms Keller flew at him.
She attacked him with a knife, Your Honour, leaving my client no option but to fight back despite Ms Keller’s significantly smaller stature.
‘And as for afterwards … Put yourself in Mr Cane’s shoes.
A young, attractive, powerful man, suddenly caught in a scandal not of his own making, a scandal eerily resonant of those many #MeToo movement claims that were exaggerated or false and that unforgivably diluted the immensity of sexual assault claims for women everywhere as a result.
Is it any wonder that he feared for his own safety? Is it any wonder that he ran?
‘Your Honour, if my brief summary of that night is undermined in any way by the frequency of false allegations like the one that Nina Keller has made against my client, all you have to do is look at the man himself.
Mr Cane is a respected member of the community, an upstanding citizen with no history of sexual or violent crimes.