The Girl Who Made Life Worth Living

Chapter 7: Virginia v. Charles Audley

I apologize if the court procedures / legal language isn't super accurate! I tried my best!

This chapter jumps right in to the abuse Nora experienced and has victim blaming/etc. in a court trial setting, so be prepared.

- Erin (author, they/them)

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The prosecution had finished presenting general claims of abuse; now it was time to get into the specifics. They were starting with neglect, from the beginning.

"Nora Audley, can you please give a summarized account of how your relationship with Charles Audley started and progressed to present time?"

"I only saw him at Christmas when my parents were alive, and he never really paid attention to me. But when they both died he moved in so he could take care of me, because he was the only family I had left in the U.S." She looked so fragile in the harsh courtroom lighting, calmly sitting behind the large podium.

"What age were you when he became your guardian and moved in?"

"Nine."

"Thank you. Please continue."

"At first he was kind of.. normal. I could tell he wasn't used to kids, and he didn't really know what to do with me, but it was okay. But over time he got more angry at me, and it was always just over small stuff, y'know? Like anything I did annoyed him. I couldn't make him happy. And as I got older he wanted me to do more things around the house, but he was really demanding about it. Anytime I'd mess up or forget to do something, I'd not get something."

"Can you clarify what you mean by that?"

"Like, um, if I didn't do the dishes good enough, I wouldn't get breakfast the next day. As a punishment. And punishments like that happened more and more all the time. Now it's like, I can't spend time with friends so I can't have any, I get his old clothes he doesn't want instead of new ones that fit me, I'm hungry a lot, I cry a lot.." Nora looked down at her lap.

Finn sat there in the second row, his eyes glued to her. He wanted to hug her for being so brave up there.

"When did the physical abuse begin?"

"When I was fourteen," she looked back up. "One night I made him mad, I don't remember what I did but, he'd been drinking some and he got all in my face about it. I said something and then I remember, he slapped me. That was the first time. And it got worse after that."

"How old are you now, Nora?"

"Seventeen."

"Would you say that you've regularly experienced starvation as punishment from your uncle?"

"Yes."

"Can you please stand up in the front here for the jury to see you."

"Yes ma'am," Nora said quietly as she got up.

What's happening?

Nora stopped where the prosecutor was pointing at the ground, facing the jury. She was wearing a skin-tight, white bodycon dress that showed just how underweight she was. Her ribs were defined in all directions, her hip bones protruding, and her legs looked like snappable pencils.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, please take in the state of Nora Audley's body. This is not the result of a teenage eating disorder as the defense will try to argue, this is from years of being underfed by the very person who was entrusted to care for her. This is what neglect looks like."

There was a loud moment of silence across the courtroom. Finn couldn't see her face, but with how stiff Nora was holding her body he could tell she was trying not to cry.