Chapter 5
It was ten in the morning and Lucia sat in her mother’s silver Slug Bug quietly. Vance had ridden with their dad. He’d been right – Lucia would have to go to court and today was that day.
There was no doubt that Lucia would do one thing – keep her mouth shut. Lucinda had told her that Joshua would be there. This excited her greatly. It’d been nearly a month since she’d seen him last. Just thinking about it gave Lucia butterflies.
Somewhere deep inside, Lucia was angry at Josh and wanted to tell someone about that night…that night when her world ended. Sure, she’d only been fifteen, but there had never been anything that hurt her worse than that time. Lucia instantly pushed away the thought – it had been an accident after all.
The car stopped and Lucia gazed out of the window. There he was his grown hair longer than she remembered it to be. That was all that she could see from where she sat. Lucia’s heart jumped in her chest as thrust the door open.
“Lucia, wait!” Lucinda called, but she didn’t listen. It didn’t matter that there were hundreds of people everywhere, or that they were all surrounding her. The only thing that really mattered was that Joshua was only feet away from her and she had to get to him.
Before she was able to, Lucia felt a hand wrap around her arm. “No,” her father’s voice yelled as she tried to struggle out of his grasp.
“Let go,” she plead, “Joshua! Josh!” She screamed.
Joshua looked over his shoulder and stared at her for a long time before he was forced forward by the officer holding him. Sobs left Lucia’s pink lips as he walked away in his orange prison outfit.
Lucia wrenched her arm from Jon’s grasp and walked into the court house. She quickly wiped away the tears that kept coming against her will. She took a seat in the first row of benches.
The room was the typical court styled room – wood everywhere and people everywhere. Lucia hesitantly stood up and made her way to the large podium. There was a small chair sitting behind it, as well as a microphone attached to the top. Sitting on Lucia’s right was Joshua. He looked tired and upset as he looked at the girl. Lucia knew that her face was pale again; it had been since the moment she’d seen him.
Lucia’s stomach churned as the Judge began to speak. “Joshua Kenneth has been accused of the kidnapping and keeping of Lucia Patton. What does he plead?” The Judge didn’t look too tall, though Lucia couldn’t tell since he was sitting down. He had a bald head and large, brown eyes.
“Not guilty, sir,” Joshua’s lawyer said. He had on a thick, black suit with a silver checkered tie.
“Very well. Proceed,” the man said, gesturing towards Lucia. Her eyes were begging for everyone to stop staring at her and just go away. She took a glance at Josh, tears in her blue eyes. Take me home, Josh, please take me home….
The first person to take the stand was the woman whom had taken Lucia away from Joshua that first day. Her stomach churned once again as she stared at the woman; she looked right back. Her brown hair, the same color as that little girl that she’d had with her the first time Lucia had seen her.
“Calling Diane Ride to the stand,” the Judge said before nodding at Joshua’s lawyer to proceed.
“Miss Ride, is it true that you were snooping and looking into my client’s house?” He asked, tapping a pen against his splotched hand.
“No, it’s not,” Diane said, continuing, “Lucia was looking out of the front window and I happened to be walking by with my little girl. I recognized her but I couldn’t remember from where. Then I realized when I came home and saw the letter with the picture of her.”
“So you admit that you looked into the window, do you not?”
Diane tensed but nodded. “I did look; anyone would have if they found someone staring at them.” She glanced at Lucia and gave her a small smile.
Lucia couldn’t help but smile back, even though she felt a bit uncomfortable with all of the people in the room. She watched quietly, staying close to her brother. “Are you saying that if my client were out and saw a child in the window, he’d look at them?” The man raised an eyebrow.
Lucia saw what he was trying to do; he was trying to pin things on Diane. “I don’t know, maybe he would, maybe he wouldn’t.”
A smirk appeared on the lawyer’s lips. “No farther questions, your honor.”
The Judge nodded at Diane and she got down from the stand. Her brown hair swayed as she did so. She sat down behind Lucia; she had a feeling that the woman was going to talk to her. “How are you coping, dear?” She whispered close to Lucia’s ear. It made her shiver.
“I’m okay,” she replied, a small smile on her face.
“Good. We’re going to get him, okay? He’s not going to get away with what he did.”
Lucia tensed and scooted forward a bit. She wouldn’t let them get her Joshua. He was the only person she’d ever known; since she was a little girl. There had to be reason for Joshua to take her besides her being kidnapped. Maybe her parents hadn’t been doing a good job raising her.
Yes, that’s it, Lucia convinced herself. They weren’t doing too great of a job now, so why would they have when she was younger? Maybe that was the key; she had to prove that so she could go home.
“Calling Joshua Kenneth to the stand,” the Judge said. Joshua stood up as well as the officer whom had brought him in. He pulled him by his arm up to the stand and stood beside him, waiting.
His lawyer tapped his pen against his hand once again. “Mister Kenneth, is it true that you had a reason for taking Miss Patton?” The man put the word taking in quotation marks with his fingers.
“Yes, sir, I did.”
“Would you please tell us what this is?”
Joshua nodded and his lawyer placed an article in front of the Judge. “Ten years ago, Jon Patton was tried for the molestation of a five year old girl; almost the same age as Lucia,” he answered, taking a glance at her. This made Lucia’s heart jump. “He wasn’t found guilty, but there was evidence that he did it.”
“So you were protecting Lucia, were you not?” The man asked, smiling at his client.
“Yes sir, that’s right. I didn’t think she was safe and I was afraid if anyone knew then they’d come after her; he’d do what he did to that little girl.”
Beside Lucia, Jon Patton’s face became pale. No matter what Lucia did, she couldn’t catch his eye. Had this been true? Did he really do something so vial and cruel? She nodded to herself; it had to be true. See? She told herself, he’s innocent after all.
“No farther questions, your honor,” the man said. He nodded and the officer, once again, led Josh back to his spot. Lucia stared at him, trying to catch his eye; she did, finally. She mouthed that she loved him and a small smile appeared on his face; a small dash of hope.
“Excuse me, miss, we need you to come up here,” a tall dark haired man in uniform gestured towards the podium.
“Miss Patton, please tell us what you experienced in the past years that you were with Mister Kenneth,” Josh’s lawyer spoke.
Lucia looked at the man as he spoke, but she comprehended none of it at all. Her heart pounded in her chest and she shrunk down in her seat – did they really expect her to talk to them after they took her away from her only home?
“Miss Patton, answer the question, please,” the Judge said. Again, there was no response. She looked away from the scene altogether and wrapped her arms around her chest. She closed her eyes, imagining she was safe and away from all of those staring eyes.
“If you don’t answer Miss P-“
“Leave her alone! She’s scared, can’t you see?” Vance yelled, beckoning for Lucia to come down from the podium. She immediately ran to her brother and hid her face in his chest. “She’s not ready for this, Judge, I’m sorry.”
A loud sigh left the man’s lips as he nodded. “I understand. This court will rezoom next year; when the year is over, we’ll look back into it.” He looked at Lucia. “Take your time, little one. You’ve been through a lot and we all know it.”
**
The air is thick inside of the house as Lucia curls up under the blanket, naked. He did it again; he came home drunk and she knows what he wants. She looks down at the hickeys that cover her chest like a giant bruise. Her legs tremble because she knows he likes to hear her scream; she only screams when she is being hurt.
Lucia knows she’ll beg him to stop, but he won’t. It’s proven when Joshua walks into the room, his eyes bloodshot. “Get up, bitch,” he grunts. His pants drop instantly and he’s exposed to Lucia. It’s nothing new to her, but it doesn’t mean she does not wince every time he does it.
In fear of being hurt, Lucia gets up as she’s told, only to be pushed onto her knees. She closes her eyes as he forces himself into her mouth. She’s always thought of just biting him hard enough to draw blood but she knows it will only get her beaten. She tries to pull away; she tries to scream, but it doesn’t work; it never does. No one is there to hear her screams and cries and he knows it and likes it that way.
Josh pulls out and throws Lucia onto the bed. No one hears her screams as he presses himself into her; he makes her hurt. He always makes her hurt, but that’s what he loves. He loves when she cries and when she begs him to stop. “Please, no more, no more!” She cries, pushing against his chest. He only pushes her back against the bed.
“Shut the hell up,” Joshua yells. Lucia can smell the liquor on his breath; no doubt that it is Whiskey. She wonders if he was with a girl this time; she wonders if he’s been betraying her like he usually does. She decides that he loves her and only her. He wouldn’t do all of this if he didn’t love her.
When he’s done, he falls to the side and orders her to pleasure him more; he won’t do all of the work, why should he? She’s his bitch, not the other way around. Lucia does as she’s told reluctantly, still crying. When she’s done she curls up in her bed and hugs her knees. Joshua reaches over and touches her even though he has already done what he wants with her. She’s beautiful; he cannot keep his hands off of her no matter what he does.
Lucia is forced to muffle her cries and she tells herself to buck up; he loves her and Joshua wouldn’t hurt her unless there was a reason. She deserves this, she always does. She needs to be a better girlfriend to him and do what he says. She needs to stop screaming when he does things to her. She knows this, but she also knows that he wants her to scream. She won’t back away from the thought that he loves her.
Lucia lays there, feeling the blood trickle down her pale legs. It’s not the first time he’s made her bleed down there. It won’t be the last time. She just has to deal with it and be a good girlfriend to Joshua; if she is, maybe he won’t go to other girls for sex. She needs to give it to him when he wants it, not object.
That’s what she’ll do for now on, maybe he won’t go out anymore.