Reasonable Doubt: Volume 3 (Reasonable Doubt 3)

My heart clenched at the final frame in the set. It was a shot of her fiddling with her umbrella, crying. She was upset because they were forcing her to go inside, because they didn’t understand that although she liked being at the park in broad sunlight, she preferred to play outside in the rain.

Emotional Distress (n.):

A negative emotional reaction—which may include fear, anger, anxiety, and suffering for which monetary damages may be awarded.

Aubrey

I looked terrible. Absolutely terrible.

Today was the first full costume rehearsal for Swan Lake and I didn’t look fit for the part at all. My eyes were swollen and puffy—ruined from randomly crying about Andrew, my lips were dry and cracked, and my skin was so pale that Mr. Petrova walked by and asked, “Are you playing a white swan or are you playing a white ghost?”

As much as I tried to force myself to smile through my heartache, I was crying every moment I was alone, eating an exorbitant amount of ice cream and chocolate each night, and I couldn’t sleep for shit.

I still couldn’t believe Andrew kicked me out of his condo so cruelly. One minute he was holding me against his chest and kissing me, and the next he was telling me that he and I had f**ked enough—that he didn’t want me anymore, and that he was going to f**k someone else.

What was worse, was that when we returned to work that following Monday, he’d been twice as rude to me. He reassigned me to a case that would take me months to sort, scolded me in front of everyone for being ten seconds late, and then he had the audacity to complain about me smiling as I brought him his daily coffee.

At least I spit in it…

“Are you crying right now?” The make-up assistant tilted my chin up. “Do you know how expensive this stage mascara is?”

>“So, do you believe that you deserve to be fined or punished for giving your employees false hope? For dragging them into a situation you knew you would end all along?”

“I think I did what was in my company’s best interest,” I said—ignoring the fact that my heart was pounding against my chest. “And in the future, as those employees move on like they should, they’ll perhaps realize that my company wasn’t the best fit for them anyway.”

“Don’t you think you owe them a simple apology? Don’t you think you should at least give them that?”

“An apology implies that I did something wrong.” I gritted my teeth. “Just because they don’t agree with what I did, doesn’t mean that I wasn’t right.”

“Do you believe in reasonable doubt, Mr. Hamilton?”

“You said you only had three questions left. Has elementary mathematics changed recently?”

“Do you believe in reasonable doubt, Mr. Hamilton?” Her face reddened. “Yes or no?”

“Yes.” I clenched my jaw. “Yes, I believe that’s a common requirement for every single lawyer in this country.”

“So, given the current case that we’re discussing…Do you think that someone like you, someone who treated his employees so terribly, could ever change in the future, now that you know how badly you’ve hurt others’ livelihood?”

“Reasonable doubt is not about feelings, Miss Everhart, and I suggest you consult the closest legal dictionary you can find because I’m pretty sure we’ve had this discussion once before…”

“I don’t recall that, Mr. Hamilton, but—”

“In your own ill-fated yet correct words, didn’t you once tell me—post your first interview here at GBH, that certain lies have to be told and certain truths have to be withheld? And that the ultimate conviction is up to those who can discern which is which?” I looked her up and down. “Is that not the exact definition that you provided for reasonable doubt?”

She stared at me a long time—giving me that same look of hurt she had when I kicked her out of my place.

“No further questions, Your Honor.” She mumbled.

Mr. Greenwood clapped loudly from the back of the room. Mr. Bach and the other interns followed suit.

“Very good job, Miss Everhart!” Mr. Bach shouted. “That was a very direct yet compelling line of questioning.”

“Thank you sir.” She avoided looking at me.

“You are officially the first intern to get our Andrew all riled up.” He smiled, seemingly impressed. “We definitely need to keep you around. Hell, we may call you in when we need to be reminded that he’s capable of showing emotion.”

More laughter.