“Sheriff Brian Diaz.” He shook my hand, and I returned the shake, like it was the most natural thing in the world, before realizing that six months ago I couldn’t have done that. I would have turned around and run away. “Thank you for coming here today. It’s a very brave thing that you’re doing.”
Bane squeezed my hand, still looking at the sheriff. “Bring us up to speed.”
“Well, Miss Carter is going to identify the suspects behind a window. They won’t be able to see her, but she’ll be able to see them.” He turned his gaze back to me, smiling reassuringly. “You won’t have to meet them or speak to them. After that, mainly more paperwork to supplement your amended statement, and you’re done. Evidence is strong and sufficient.”
“How long ago were they arrested?”
“Checked in forty minutes ago,” Brian replied.
Roman nodded solemnly. “Bail?”
“A hundred K.”
My teeth nearly snapped. Was that how little my innocence was worth? Roman massaged my back in circles, still talking calmly to Sheriff Diaz.
“Are they lawyered up yet?”
“Their parents and lawyers are on their way.”
“Let me know if they’re bailed.” Bane’s jaw hardened.
“Protsenko…”
But even Sheriff Diaz knew better than to argue with him over this point.
I wasn’t supposed to come face-to-face with Emery, but somehow, I knew that I would. Like I couldn’t truly move on unless our eyes locked together one last time. And they did. I was just passing through the hallway when Emery, Nolan, and Henry were being moved from the holding cells. The three of them were in handcuffs. My arms were swinging by my sides freely. Free. I was free.
The two large officers behind Emery exchanged annoyed looks, like it shouldn’t have happened, and Villegas shook her head and stared at them blankly. It only took five seconds before Emery was pulled to the door next to the one I was entering, but it was enough.
Our eyes met.
His were empty.
Mine were full.
I knew that, because of the way his gaze widened on mine, when he realized, for the first time, that I wasn’t the girl he’d left behind. I dipped my chin to my chest, smiling and muttering under my breath, “Pleasure running into you like this, Emery.”
Bane waited out front while I was taken into a small white room where the paint job was chipped, rolling down from the ceiling. There was a window at the center of the room that showed us another room, still empty.
Detective Villegas explained the procedure, and the whole time, I thought about the first time Emery Wallace had asked me out on a date. I’d been so giddy and happy that day, I’d accidentally walked straight into a wall.
Looking deep into your rapist’s eyes with them knowing you are on the other side of a tinted window was strange. When Emery walked into the room, I felt warmth spreading through my chest for the first few seconds, before I remembered what we were here for. His pupils dilated when he stared back at the mirrored window, like he, too, was able to look at me. Nolan and Henry were there, along with some men of different ages and attire. The three boys looked pissed and scared, their eyes bright, their jaws slack.
“Take your time. Breathe,” Madison whispered into my ear.
I wielded my sword.
They couldn’t hurt me anymore.
I pointed at the three of them calmly. “They were the ones who did it.”
Villegas nodded and left the room.
I pressed a hand onto the window and smiled at them. Emery smiled back, as if he could see me. It was taunting, but it was there. I took all of him in. His brown-blond hair styled in an expensive haircut and moussed to death. His pretty blue eyes. His slender body, goody-two-shoes Polo shirt. Nolan, who looked like everything wholesome and American in the world. Henry, a WASP from hell, with his lanky frame and bony nose, looking like a classic trust fund baby. I looked at them, and they looked at me, and all they could see was black, because that’s who I was to them.
The darkness.
The stain in their history.
Not to be removed.
Not to be forgotten.
I would spread, and conquer, and be remembered, so that other women would not end up like me.
I pressed my face to the chilly glass, laughing. Bane was outside. He couldn’t be there with me when I identified them. He couldn’t see how crazy they made me, and that was a good thing. That moment of insanity was mine. Not to be shared with others. Well, other than the officers, but I was sure they’d seen worse.
“You’re not getting away with this.” I rolled my head from side to side against the glass, realizing that my closure was going to be different. It was going to be made through lawyers and courthouses and documentation. I couldn’t yell in Emery’s face and bite Nolan the way he’d bitten me, or kick Henry the way he’d kicked me.