Reasons Why

Chapter Twenty One

Chloe struggled to retain her composure, she wanted to stand up and scream at her former employer, berate him for making her hell complete. But she didn’t. She took a deep breath and stared at him, noting that David sat behind was embarrassed. Surely this was unethical? No one seemed to care.

                “If you had the transcripts of some of the thousands of messages there have been between my brother and me over the years, you’d see far worse than that. We all argue, siblings fight...that is life!”

                “Fight Miss Parker? Really?”

She groaned, anger threatening to blow at any second, “Mr Bremmer, are you trying to insinuate that I at less than ten stone could have beaten my brother who was half a foot taller and several stone heavier into a pulp outside my apartment because we had a falling out?”

He grinned, looking poignantly at the jury before returning his eyes to her, “I don’t know Miss Parker, should I be?”

Chloe sighed and looked at the ceiling briefly, the last thing she wanted was to irritate the jury with her behaviour, but she was struggling to not scream at the defence counsel.

                “Miss Parker?”

She dropped her eyes to him again, “yes?”

                “Did you see your brother after the conversation with him on the phone at approximately nine pm?”

Tears suddenly prickled at her eyes, this was more of a rollercoaster than anything else she’d ever known, “the next time I saw him after that conversation was in the hospital mortuary...dead.” She averted her eyes, not wanting anyone to see her cry, but just saying the words brought such vivid memories of the last time she saw Owen.”

                “Objection to this line of questioning your honour,” finally the prosecutor stood and offered his resistance at the line of questioning. “Miss Palmer has never been a suspect in this case, and reliving the last time she saw her twin is hardly appropriate or relevant!”

Max Bremmer stood, “I’m merely trying to identify the mindset of the witness on the night in question.”

The judge, an elderly man shook his head, “Make it relevant Bremmer, or it will all be struck from the record. We’ll adjourn for a few minutes, give the witness a moment. Court will reconvene in thirty minutes.”

They both nodded, and the prosecutor retook his seat. It had given Chloe a moment to regain her composure, but the words from Max, his need to identify her mind set, as she took that in, she knew the moment was doomed. She followed the clerk out of the court, but a thick black fog had descended, and the nausea and fear were back.

Luke wanted to kill someone himself, this was worse than he’d ever imagined. Poor Chloe, a lamb to the slaughter. Where was the justice in doing this to her? He couldn’t wait for the day to end, to find her, to make her realise that they had something worth fighting for. Phil seemed to think that this court case would be the end of the nightmare for her. Hopefully with relief, with the closure of it all, just maybe she’d see him in a different light. It was selfish to hope that from her misfortune any good would figure him, but he honestly had nothing else.

He was sat watching, hidden in the corner of the full court room when the door opened and the bench re-entered the court, then another door revealed Chloe, brave, strong with her chin tilted high in the air. If he’d doubted that he loved her, then in that moment...as it hit him between the eyes like a sledge hammer - the protective instinct, the admiration, the concern...so many emotions that she elicited, he knew in that moment that he did, wholeheartedly.