Motel 6 // n.h

[33] Police Station

  "As in the accomplice of Kate Winters or is there just some coincidence there?" He questioned.

  "That's him." Avery said, biting her lip. 

  "Alright." He nodded, jotting some things down on a clipboard that he had in front of him. "Continue, please."

  "Well, um, I had been with him for a couple of years." Avery began, clearing her throat. "He's been abusing me for about three years now. Both me and my three year old." I could see that she was fighting back tears, and all I wanted to do right at this moment was grab her face and kiss her.

  "Have you reported this at any time before?" Mr. Smith asked.

  "No, sir." Avery said. "I only left him around three months ago. That's when I met Niall, who encouraged me to get help." She muttered. I smiled at her as she looked my way for a brief moment. Mr. Smith nodded, taking in her words and jotting several more things down on his paper.

  "So you when you say abusing, what do you mean? Hitting, full blown attacks...?" He trailed off, letting Avery talk. I felt so sick to my stomach, I just wanted to run out of the room. I hated the fact that someone would hurt innocent people, especially innocent people that I loved.

  "Attacks." Avery said, her voice cracking. "It got really bad."

  "How bad?" Mr. Smith pried. At this point, I didn't even want to hear what she was going to say.

  "One of the worst is probably-" Avery lifted her shirt just a bit so that her scar showed. "-this one. He had thrown a lamp and I was cut by a glass shard. He was an alcoholic." I could see tears streaming down her face and I just wanted to kiss them away.

  "How often did he drink?"

  "Every night." She answered, quickly swiping away her tears.

  "Did he ever physically hurt you when he was sober?"

  "Yes, but not as often as when he was under the influence." She answered quickly, tears now free falling down her red cheeks.

  "And your daughter- is she his?"

  "Yes, she's his." 

  "What was the worst he had done to her?"

  "Hit her. I tried to be around her as much as I could so that I could prevent it. I really did try, but some times when I wasn't around he'd-" She started to cry harder now, her whole body shaking. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." She apologized over and over.

  "Ma'am, there is nothing to apologize for." Mr. Smith reassured her. "Do you know where Mr. Yoder is right now?" 

  "Looking for me." Avery admitted. "He's coming after both Aimee and I, and we've been hiding from him. We have a team of bodyguards working with us, but we wanted to tell police so that he could be taken down." She explained, not caring about what she looked like at this point.

  "I see, I see..." Mr. Smith said. "So you would like to file an abuse case, then. I should let you know that with this there comes going to court, and you would have to face Mr. Yoder in a courtroom. Would you be able to do that?" 

  Avery hesitated for a moment, but then nodded her head in agreement. She and I both knew that this was what she needed to do to protect her daughter. I could do so many things for her, but it was all in her hands in the end.

  "Have you thought about contacting a lawyer?" He asked. "I can give you a list of good lawyers, but I think you won't need a good lawyer to win this case." He admitted. "In the mean time, we'll have forces tracking down Mr. Yoder, as well as Ms. Winters. I'm very sorry this all has happened." He apologized sincerely. She smiled, grateful.