WARNING: This chapter holds very mature themes of sexual assault and suicide. Please consider this if you are particular sensitive to these themes.
Lyla is pronounced - lie-la.
-A
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~ CHAPTER 16 ~
They were waiting and so the words vomited out of me before I could reel them in. Now they were going to know it all, not just what some bull shit report paints me to be.
"We went to this stupid party. My first one in such a long time. Lyla went to hang out with her boy toy at the time. Ben didn't really like me too much, so I basically spent my night alone with whisky and vodka. Then she came to me screaming and crying at about two in the early morning." I choked back a sob as tears began to collect themselves, threatening to fall.
"He'd tried to rape her. She came running and pulling me through the crowds and into the yard so quick. She shoved the car keys into my hand, begging for me to drive. I knew I shouldn't, I didn't even have a licence. And yet when I saw him fling the front door open and bee line towards us, I turned the ignition key and floored it. We drove for about 20 minutes before the car sped through a blind corner and there he was. Michael Sullivan. His body hit the front of the car first but his head. Oh, it smacked so loudly against the windshield, it shattered the glass to a million pieces and rained down on us." I said, unable to hold back my bitterness.
Blake didn't read the report but absorbed what I said. At the same time my mind was racing and the tears dropped. Quickening the further I dived into the past.
"The whole bloody city knew what happened. And Lyla's close encounter with assault. She couldn't take it, fell deep into depression. But I was too blind to notice, focusing on my manslaughter case instead."
Shakenly I pulled the file from Blake's hands. Flicking the pages, past the photos of Sullivan's dead body and smashed skull. To Lyla.
Lyla's body lay in the bath tub. Her dirty blonde hair a mess of curls in a bun. Her right arm lay in the bath water, the other lay over the edge of the tub. A pool of crimson red blood down the side of the bath and all over the floor. The water though. The water was a shade of scarlet. It was like she was drowning in it. But her face was the most peaceful it had been in the months following the accident.
"I found her, that's why they were lenient on me. Apparently I had suffered an extreme amount of trauma, I was incompatible to be institutionalized and instead got a community corrections order."
The next photo was one of Lyla and I only about a week before the incident, we were laughing. Eyes twinkling and everything. I smiled lightly before looking at them again.
"How did you get these? They are sealed." I muttered to Matthew, seeing as he was the one to conjure them up.
But Elijah answered, his first words to me today. "Matthew's the best tech I know, nothing is private to him."
Thomas continues, "yeah, Elijah is Head, Blake is his right hand and Ashton and I are just along for the fun."
I nodded slowly taking in what they said. While I was interested my thoughts were still lingering with Lyla and tainted memories I was left with now. Had that been the answer I longed for, her way out.
We all stood and head towards the next part of the paddock fence that need repair. The stroll was taken in silence. The rhythm echoing as we worked hard in the peak of the day's heat. No break stops or toilet stops, we slaved away into the evening. They somehow knew I needed the distraction or else I would fall apart.
Yet her lifeless eyes were the only thing I could think about.