State Of Grace

Chapter 7 - Innocent

When Gracie was a little girl, she loved journaling, she would write everything that happened every single day, and she kept doing it when she went into the system, but after a few years, she landed in an emergency placement when her former guardian had her foster license revoked, her new foster sister stole the journal, along with the only photos of her parents that Gracie had left. The girl took Gracie and her belongings outside and made her watch as she burned them in the barbeque. Gracie told Anita what happened and she was removed from the home, but she never found out if the girl had gotten in trouble for what she'd done.

After that, Gracie had no outlet for her feelings, and she started struggling. It was the image of her father's blue lips and bloody wrists that haunted her dreams. One day when she was nine years old, she started to think that maybe he had the right idea, to end the suffering now before it got too bad.

It started with a pair of scissors she'd stolen from the kitchen. After a few small scratches, she couldn't understand why she wasn't dying. But the pain that she'd caused herself felt comforting, she could barely feel the heartache of losing her dad because the scratches on her arm were distracting her. She did the same thing every day. Gradually, the cuts got worse, deeper, and more painful but provided her with a new outlet. She needed that pain to survive.

It had been a week since Gracie arrived at the Tuckers. John still hadn't admitted what he'd done, but the results from the SAFE kit had finally come back, and the evidence was stacking up against him. Gracie had to be interviewed by another police officer and then she had a meeting with a lawyer that Stella and Lilah had hired to work the case. They'd used their own money, which Gracie protested at first, but when Stella said that cases like this need good attorneys, she knew it was her best shot.

The slim dark-haired woman sat at the kitchen table with Gracie, Stella, and Lilah, who had both taken another day off of work. The woman introduced herself as Janice and started asking Gracie and her foster mothers countless questions. She needed to know everything, and as much as Gracie hated talking about it, she knew she had to if she wanted justice.

"The first thing that will happen will be the plea hearing," Janice explained, "You won't have to be there, but Judge Rollins will ask how John pleads, and that will determine whether or not a trial will take place," Janice spoke matter-of-factly, she'd done this kind of thing a million times before, "I've been in contact with his attorney and he's proposed we make a deal."

"What kind of deal?" Gracie asked, completely oblivious to the way the criminal justice system worked.

"If you tell the judge that you consented, John will be charged with statutory rape and be sentenced to one year of community service."

Gracie's blood boiled and her hands clenched so hard her nails were cutting into her palms. Stella and Lilah started objecting to Janice's suggestion, their words were sharp but Gracie wasn't paying enough attention to know what they were saying, her eyes were focused on Janice, "No way," she stated, "That's not a deal, I have to lie and in return, he gets a slap on the wrist?" She started shouting, "No! I want him in prison!"

"Okay, okay," Janice raised her hand in defense, "It's ultimately your decision, but you should know that if we don't take this deal, it'll go to trial, and we might not win."

"But what about the SAFE kit? Isn't that all the evidence we need?" Stella asked, "His DNA was everywhere."

At first, Gracie was irritated that everyone kept saying 'we'. She was the one he had raped, but then she started to realize that it meant she had people on her side, she had a team.

"His lawyer will try to make excuses for that. Gracie lived in his house, there are ways around the law. But part of my job is to figure out what story he's going to spin and find a way to counter it. If you don't want to take the deal, that's fine but you need to know your options," Janice said.