Pokémon Fool's Gold | Orre & Galar Fanfiction

Chapter 88: The Verdict

The next victim impact statement was Trip's. He wrote it with Amber the night before the trial began. Lyndon hugged him, reminding him to look at the judge rather than Gretchen if she upset him, but he was distant. He unfolded crumpled paper at the stand.

'I will feel the impact of living a lie, where I was verbally and physically abused and constantly gaslighted, until I was 17 for the rest of my life. My child will feel it too. I will live in fear they could be kidnapped by Gretchen or someone else like her and will struggle to trust any authority figure whose job it is to protect them. I should never have ended up in this position because I should have been in the care of my father who actually loved me, but I was led to believe – and suffered believing – he didn't care. This isn't just on Gretchen but CPS and the police. I'll also – also – never – overcome witnessing my mother's murder and the fact it was my own grandma who did it while blaming a drug addiction she caused. My mother was a brave, loving, selfless and eternally hopeful soul who wasn't just valued by those who knew her, but who would have been an asset to society.'

He abruptly folded up his paper and turned. Only Amber and Dibe knew he hadn't read the full speech. He desperately struggled to blink back tears when he sat. Horbit was already at the stand. He didn't bother opening up the paper reminding him of his prepared statement.

'This excuse for a human being murdered my three year-old son. Her own nephew. And tried to blame it on two of her most tortured victims, Laila and Lyndon.'

Dibe frowned, but didn't stop him. 'But y'all already know that. You can see how much I hate her. How none of Lir's loved ones – because I'm not the only one, you can see my wife Trystalyn and her parents Dobit and Shorna here today – have ever recovered. We can say he was a fun, loving little boy, but we can't say all that much else, because he wasn't alive long enough for us to know. There's just a void where he was. But yeah, that's obvious. So what I want to stress is that this woman was a foster parent. She was trusted over biological and adoptive parents. That was the only reason we left Lir with her when we were already a little suspicious. We thought they checked people like that. She didn't just betray our trust. She betrayed the trust of parents like Hollie. She betrayed the people of Orre. I ask for an exception to the rules... I ask for the death penalty.'

There was a murmur, but it wasn't about Horbit's request. Lyndon stood. He was up next. Cameras flashed. People tensed. They expected him to explode. He carefully flattened a piece of notepaper on the stand. Of all people, he seemed most likely to face Gretchen, but he spoke only to Dibe because, for the first time, a judge was listening.

'It is no exaggeration that Gretchen Manning ruined my life. It's the opposite. No speech or action can begin to describe the pain she caused me, but I have to try, not because I believe she'll ever feel remorse or a desire to change, but because I once stood outside this very court with a "Justice for Laila" sign... and I was not heard, or even acknowledged, but arrested and sued for defamation. The day that I, on behalf of Laila, will be heard is finally here and I will not be silenced. Not for her, not for me, not for my son and not for my mother.'

He was visibly nervous, but spoke clearly. 'Because before we ever imagined Gretchen could be evil enough to kill her own daughter, my mom and I suffered for over 10 years watching her abuse and neglect Laila, my best friend who – despite repeatedly alerting the police and CPS – we were powerless to help. I can't say how time would have changed our relationship. But I know, naive or not, when we chose to have a child we believed we'd be together forever. We never imagined Laila's own mother would step between us and that child, or that she'd almost ruin my mom's career as a pilot in the process of doing so, purely because she tried to give Laila and Trip a safe place to live in her own home. We certainly never imagined she was so obsessed with Cipher that it was between joining them and death. That was the choice she gave Laila. Cipher or death. As Trip noted, she was eternally hopeful. Laila chose neither. She chose to fight.'