Notes: Day 2 session ends as Karen starts to feel exhausted from going to court. However, Day 3 bring in new surprises for the family that Karen had been keeping to herself which only her and Drew knew about.
After the last court session was over the judge had released everyone to go home because Dr.Womack had shut that whole thing down of trying to place the blame on Karen.
She wasn't about to let Greg's attorney try to intimidate her nor make Karen seem like she knew what she was doing from a young age knowing goodness well that she didn't. That wouldn't be doing her duties of being the best therapists she could be.
So she did what she had to do and made sure that he didn't have a comeback with her.
Once court was over, Jacky had looked to the back making sure that her two nieces were out of sight before Karen had got there. "They better run." Jacky said underneath her breath while grabbing her purse and walking out of the court house after Leo was taking their mama home so they could get something to eat and they could just bring her back something.
But by this time Karen's eyes had went back to normal and they were no longer red. Any crying that she had felt like she had wanted to do evaporated once, Dr.Womack started talking because Karen knew that Dr.Womack wasn't about to let anybody play her like that either.
So, so far Karen was doing good with the case even though at first it might've felt like she was losing but her secret weapon in all of this was ultimately her psychiatrists who had her best intentions at heart.
Back at home, Faith and Nikki had decided to just stay upstairs not wanting to face their mom knowing that they were gonna start acting all nice to her and she was gonna find that oddly suspicious coming from Faith. Nikki on the other hand she could probably play it off because she was never that bad but Karen was still gonna question it.
But if anything Karen was honestly to exhausted to do anything else today all she wanted to do was to go home and just sleep all her troubles away because she knew that tomorrow's case was going to go into how her relationship with Greg had caused her to become a sex slave which was a whole timeline by itself.
Day 3:
It was now Day 3 of her court case and everyone was back in court after getting done with the introductions for today and Greg was the first that was on the stand.
"Today we are in court to discuss how this man's wrongdoings had altered a child's way of life." Karen's attorney said.
"It was discussed yesterday that he had sexual relations with Karen Clark Sheard who was only a minor at the time 15 years old to be exact and from that last time they had sexual intercourse she had gotten pregnant by him. A baby that he wanted to keep a secret anyways." Karen's attorney said. "Thus causing her father to come down from New York to collect her and her things but that father of hers did not have the resources to even take care of his child nor his grandchild which is in jail by the way for child abuse and child neglect for breaking his side of the custody agreement that they had over Karen Clark Sheard." The attorney said.
"I don't know what that got to do with me?!" Greg speaking out of turn and his attorney looked like he was about to pass out from being frustrated with him all the time.
"Because within that custody agreement it said if any illness, harm, danger, or pregnancy comes upon Karen Clark Sheard than Elbert Clark had the right to care for his youngest child who was attached to him at the time when her parents was going through a divorce." Karen's attorney said.
"And that danger that Elbert saw was you!" Mr.Williams said.
"You had taken advantage of their daughter who was 15 years old at the time who could not consent. You had gotten her pregnant against her will and threatened her not to tell." He said and Greg just sucked his teeth. "I did no such thing Karen wanted it and she got it. She couldn't handle it so she did what all girls do which is cry about it and falsely accuse me of something foul!" Greg said thinking that he was clear.
"But these evidence says otherwise." Mr.Williams told him telling everyone to take a look at the screen.
"Everyone please take a look at this screen here is a rape kit test that a 15 year old Karen had to do a week later and evidence showed that bruising was still there which indicated that someone had forced themselves on her and not only that their DNA was left behind." He told them. "That's just evidence number one." He had said. "Evidence number two is the dress that she was wearing that night when her attacker had attacked her." He said holding the dress up in the bag showing it to everyone even though it was on the screen as well for the ones who couldn't really see it. "On the back of this dress is still the dried up blood from when he stole her virginity." He slowly said. "As you can see the dress is ripped, blood is still on it, the grass stains from when she was pushed into the ground is still on it and it looks like she had put up quite a fight if you asked me. And when someone is fighting that doesn't seem so consensual now does it?" He had rhetorically asked them looking back at Greg while the assistant had took the dress back into evidence.
"Look she was one of them girls who likes it rough she knows exactly what she wanted and she wanted me until her damn sister found out and ruined our relationship that we had." Greg said.
And, Karen's attorney just shook his head at him.
"Sir on the night of the attack where were you?" Karen's attorney had asked him.
"I was with my then-girlfriend, Dorinda at the time...The damned sister." He said identifying her in court. "I was supposed to be going with her to the dance and I did but I got bored of it and then low and behold here comes Karen walking talking about some, "I was invited to this dance and I had to come but no one really wanted me here." He mocked her. "But could I have let her walk back home in the dark there were strangers out there and I knew if Dorinda had found out I had let Karen go back home by herself then she was gonna kill me and I couldn't let that happen." Greg said trying to sound like he was protecting her that night.
"So you admit to seeing Karen that night?" He asked him not even asking him that question and Greg realized what he had just done. "Yes but it wasn't like nothing was really going on was I drunk no was I tipsy yes a little bit just not a lot but the majority of the kids were drunk at that dance I just brought my own with me." Greg said just telling on himself and his attorney just put his head down on in his desk in shame.
"Look I just wanted her to stop crying all the damn time." Greg said halfway being truthful for once. "It was like the bitch had depression and anybody with eyes could see that." Greg said and Karen did have depression but it was hard to detect because no one knew what was going on with her. But that had only made it easier for Greg to take advantage of her because she wasn't getting the proper help that was needed to prevent him from sexually abusing her.
"So, again you admit to taking advantage of a young girl who was going through depression at an early age and you forced your-drunken-self on her at a school's dance?" Karen's attorney asked him. "A dance that she wasn't supposed to be going to anyways and it wasn't even at a dance it was in one of the nearby shed's." He added on trying to make it seem like it was Karen's fault while also telling on himself. "Sir just remember 15. 15 is when you forced yourself on her and 16 is the age of consent. That's all your honor." Mr.Williams said before sitting down not believing him.
After that had happened now it was Karen's turn to go up and then they had discussed how her moving in with her father had changed the course of her life and how Greg had affected that even though he was no longer near her but mentally he was still there in her mind.
(How the sisters look for court just imagine that Karen is still wearing her braces because she's gonna talk about why she had to wear them later on 😭♥️.)
"After my father had found out that I was pregnant like it was mentioned he took me to go live with him in New York." Karen said. "At first everything was fine and he acted as if he had all the resources and money that he needed to take care of me and my unborn baby at the time. But a few months into living with him I had realized that it wasn't the case and I could barely use the phone to call my mother because he would never pay the phone bill on time and so, I had no way of getting into contact with her except going to my friends house to try to get in touch with her but no one would be home whenever I would call and I knew they were at the church. But I didn't think I was ever gonna need the church's number to call my own mother." Karen told them.
"But then once the baby was born he tried his best to take care of us but he had gave me an ultimatum it was either put her up for adoption or both me and her was going to have to get out." Karen told them. "He didn't even give me a chance to make a choice because one day after I had came home from what was gonna be my last time going to school he had already gave her away and I didn't know where to look." Karen said as she started getting emotional because this was when she didn't know that her mother had came down to get Nikki to stop Elbert from making the worst mistake of his life because Matti knew if he had done that then Karen was gonna hate him forever.
"And how does Greg come into play with all of this?" He said to a crying Karen. "Because if he would've just been a man like he claimed he was and took care of his child and me and Nikki never would've been separated." Karen said.
"But no he didn't do that until years later after I had escaped from being a sex slave." Karen said.
"And how is you being a sex slave his fault?" Greg's attorney had asked Karen. "Because everything in your life can't be his fault." He said pursing his lips out at Karen and Karen had tried not to roll her eyes at him but she just took a deep breath and exhaled.
"An ex-sex slave." Karen said correcting him.
"That was his fault because if he never would've exposed himself to me, forced me to do unwanted sexual acts on him I would've never had to go through what I went through." Karen said pointing to herself. "He was the one who had taught me how to be a sex slave. If anything I was his first sex slave because he wouldn't even let other people know that he was fucking me." Karen said using such language getting annoyed with the attorney. "He would take me to these isolated places and just have me perform any sexual act he wanted and it didn't matter if I had said yes or no because when I had started to say no, that this was uncomfortable or I didn't want to do such and such position anymore because it was too rough...what happened he would slap me around and that was my first taste of what my future was gonna be like and I had experienced that and much worse for years when I had to work for Big J." Karen said bringing him back up again.
"So this is Greg's fault because he introduced me to that lifestyle and that's the only lifestyle that I had known after living with my father because even my father had used me in such a way to entertain men when I had turned 16." Karen said trying to keep calm but the attorney was testing her.
"That's all I did for the majority of my life was entertain men and let them use me. I got sick of it. I can't even sing anymore like I'm supposed to because of it!" Karen said getting stressed out again. "I can't even sing with my sisters like I could when I was younger because I get too stressed out the music don't even have to start or I don't even have to go up on stage to be afraid of singing. It's just the mention of me having to perform for someone or even for a church gives me a migraine because of what Greg and my father did to me." Karen explained to them.
"I'm tired't of letting men just use me in any kind of way and I just can't do it anymore." Karen said shaking her head no still trying to keep calm because she knew if someone had asked her one more stupid ole' question then she was gonna pop.
"Do you how much medication I have to take because of what that one man did to me?!" Karen asked Greg's attorney. "Before I got pregnant I was on 5 different medications just because I couldn't get myself together because of him!" Karen said referring to Greg, "And then I had to re-arrange my medication so it won't harm me or my unborn babies and you're thinking I would willingly lie for what?!" Karen asked him trying to make it make sense.
Then after that was discussed they had went onto talk about how Greg being abusive towards her had actually braced her for her father's abusiveness because she had already learned how to react towards it until Elbert had started hitting her during their arguments which everyone in Karen's family was surprised to know. Then they had talked about why Karen was kicked out of her father's house and what was the last straw which was when Elbert had found out that Karen was pregnant again for the second time but with Faith and he had dragged her out of the house by her hair not allowing her to come back inside. Even though it was her money of what was keeping the bills on for the meantime because her own father didn't even have a stable job and Elbert not having a stable job had subconsciously got into Karen's mind that somehow this was normal.
Which was why, when she came home she was even more confused that you could actually get a decent job because she wasn't used to having that anymore because she had been away from her mother so long that she had basically forgot what that had looked liked especially since she had gone suffered through trauma.
And having that had made her think that having the little side hustle job which was basically selling herself without anyone knowing was okay when it wasn't. It was just that no one had ever sat her down and told her no that's never okay until Drew had found out and he had to sit her down and he had to tell her that she didn't have to do that anymore but again as Dr.Womack put it Karen was operating in survival mode.
This all played into how she used to dress before Dorinda had fixed her wardrobe which is something the Greg's attorney had addressed trying to make a fool out of Karen but then since, Dr.Womack was still there she had explained to them that was just how Karen was conditioned to behave and anything else that was covering her she would've been punished for it. Hence why she wasn't comfortable with wearing anything that was decent at first when she did come back home and that was why Dorinda had so much patience with her baby sister because she knew that Karen didn't know any better. Even though she was a full grown adult her mind was still stuck in that programming until Ms.Tee had broke it down.
Notes:
What did y'all think about this chapter?
What did y'all think about Karen having to take all those medications?
What did y'all think about Greg knowing that Karen had depression because he took full advantage of that?
Do y'all think that Karen is starting to crack under pressure? Do y'all think that a setback is coming because of this court case?
Also there might be one two more court days left...I'm not sure but I do know for sure that's there's gonna be one more. But if y'all want two let me know in the comments so I can know whether or not to like split the chapter up into a double update?
How do y'all think Dorinda is handling all of this and yes they are gonna talk about the shed and video that was on the phone that's just saving the best for last...😭
Thoughts or Comments?
Thanks for reading!