ICY

twenty nine.

"I'm not sure, there were a lot of girls there" Melrose shrugged.

Latimore creased his forehead and even I was confused.

"Let me remind you, Ms. Gonzalez, Lucky and Isis, were their names correct?"

"And I said, there were a lot of girls there so I don't know" she rolled her eyes.

"Ms. Gonzalez, let me remind you that you are under oath here" Latimore gave her a warning look causing her to straighten her posture, "Did you or did you not have two roommates by the name of Isis and Lucky, Isis being the one you shared a room with?"

"Yes" Melrose let out an irritated breath, "Maybe, again ~"

"You don't remember" Latimore cut her off, and I could tell he was getting frustrated because his witness wasn't cooperating like he thought she would, "However I know you remember Ms. Gonzalez, same as you remember the night that Mrs. Jones' husband was murdered in cold blood. And just incase your memory is still foggy, you claimed that you heard a loud noise that awoke you, and when awoke, what did you find?"

Melrose let her eyes travel as if she was thinking, and then she shrugged once more, "I'm not sure"

"You stated that your roommate was gone, correct?" He asked, leading her to water.

"I don't remember" she said once more, and it was clear to the court that she wasn't giving up anything that Latimore wanted her to. I knew the rest of the story, however I wasn't the one on the stand and to be honest I wasn't sure what my answer would've been had it been me instead of Melrose up there.

"Permission to treat the witness as hostile, your honor" Latimore asked, and the Judge nodded in approval.

However none of his tactics worked, and I secretly applauded Melrose in her head as she continued to dodge every question and prove to be completely useless to the point that the Judge dismissed her.

The rest of the trial was drawn out, and I was grateful when the Judge called a recess until the following week. Hopefully then it would be closing arguments, and the Jury could do their thing which included locking Mrs. Jones up for life or letting her free only for us to be responsible for finding the killer after.

"Alright man, I'll see you" I nodded my head towards Nunez before hopping in my car.

After a long morning at the precent followed by the trial I was now ready to go back to the hotel, unfortunately I had to be at another place instead.
Natalie had been texting me all day for us to meet, and after thinking of what Isis said I decided to take her up on her offer. I still hadn't decided if I wanted to join her parents for dinner, because then I would have put on an act for hours and I wasn't in the mood for that.

Pulling up to the small diner, I took a deep breath and braced myself before heading in.

                               NATALIE

"Can I get another one please?" I asked the waitress who was rushing past me to fill her next order however I seriously needed to occupy myself with the lemon water as I waited for Jetson to arrive.

I glanced down at my phone to see the time switch to four on the dot, and I twisted my mouth as we settled on three forty five. With my parents down my back about the stall of the wedding plans I knew I had to grovel my way back into his life, and I would do it with no shame however a part of me knew Jet was done with me.

That, I still didn't understand as for the past three years he had adored me and for some reason he had a sudden switch. Sure, Donald coming back into our lives definitely played a part in it but Jetson was never that hot headed to actually walk away from me, let alone move out because of a disagreement. There was definitely something else going on with him, and I was hoping this little talk would clear the air.