The Terrible Trial of Kennedy Abrams (Treadmill II)

XIX

tw: mentions of sexual assault, physical assault, and stalking. does not go into detail about the first two.

"Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?"

"I do."

"You may be seated."

Kennedy adjusted her skirt as she sat down in the witness stand, trying not to appear as nervous as she felt. The first round of questions was going to come from Hotchky, not Karl, and that gave Kennedy a small semblance of calm in her chest. It wasn't much but knowing that she was going to be answering to a friendly face first helped put her mind at ease.

"Miss Abrams, tell me about your relationship with Hank Wilcox."

Deep breaths, Kennedy tried not to think about the dozens, if not hundreds, of eyes trained on her, I'm gonna answer this question. One at a time. One at a time. This question first, and then the next, and then everyone will be able to see how I was justified. How I had no other choice.

"Miss Abrams?" Brianne prodded gently.

"I met Hank at a bar when I was a sophomore in college," Kennedy began quickly, stumbling over her words a bit, "He had just spoken at my school, and we ended up at the same bar afterwards. He was very kind and complimentary when we met, and we started dating a little bit after that. I knew he was married, but his wife was in Florida, and in my head his marriage wasn't happy—I didn't know how it actually was. I don't say that to justify dating a married man, but just to answer potential questions in everyone's minds."

She took another deep breath as Hotchky nodded encouragingly, conveniently standing directly in front of Jaxson and blocking him from Kennedy's sight.

"We began dating in September of 2019. He would come up to Clemson to see me or take me to a hotel or a dinner at least an hour away. Sometimes we would meet in the middle. But this all continued for about eight months, until..." she trailed off, hoping that Elizabeth wasn't in the room. "...until he told me he was planning to leave his wife for me."

A small gasp came from the back of the room and Kennedy felt a wave of shame wash over her. Elizabeth was there. And she was about to hear a lot worse things about her former husband.

"What happened then?" Brianne asked.

"I told him I wanted to break up. That I wasn't comfortable with him leaving his wife of over a decade for me, a college kid who was just dating for fun. I didn't want the pressure of him having something to hold over me. I could just picture 'I left my wife for you' being used against me whenever I disagreed with him, for the rest of my life. Or 'I left my wife for you, you can't leave me' if I moved on and wanted to end things. I figured it would be easier and cleaner to just end it right then and there. So I did. I ended the relationship in May 2019, and that was that."

Brianne nodded, "Did you speak with Mr. Wilcox again after your relationship ended?"

"Objection, Your Honor," Jaxson stood, "She's leading the witness."

Judge Adamson looked over at ADA Karl with the most annoyed expression Kennedy had ever seen.

"Which part of that question was leading, Mr. Karl?"

Jaxson was silent for a moment.

"Saying—"

"Overruled." Adamson interrupted him, "Stop wasting my and the court's time, ADA Karl."