Roadtrip

Mia’s POV
It was weird to be here, at the witness stand. The federal prosecutor was really nice, and just asked me all sort of questions, starting with when and how we met. I looked at Josh, he was handcuffed but he seemed so quiet, not really reacting to the words being said, he didn’t even look at me.
All these questions that were asked, made me wander back to our first meeting and the first months of our relationship, when everything was good, and happy...

I stood at reception desk in the company I had been working and I saw one of our Director walk in together with Josh.
He caught my eye, we both had looked at each other, he gave me a small smile and I overheard the conversation between the Financial Director and him.
My friend at the reception desk told me Josh was one of the new employees in the financial department. I smiled, so I would see him more often, even if I wasn’t working in the same department, he would be in the building, all ready for me to casually bump into.
We met again that day in the elevator, he had introduced himself to me with a smile and kiss to my hand, I was flattered, he was handsome and had good manners.
He asked me if I wanted to have lunch with him, because he was new and didn’t know anybody in the company yet.
I accepted and we spent every each break together the following two weeks, having lunch, talking and he was always a complete gentleman, too good to be true… That was exactly what I thought, but couldn’t make out the flaw by then. I thought he might be as wonderful as he seemed.

After the two weeks he finally asked me out on a real date, he suggested to pick me up and take me to a nice restaurant. He almost begged, and I was happy to accept.
When I told Izzie about him, she was sceptical, she was even more distrusting, but I only thought that she would change her mind if she met him. Lucky for me, that was exactly what she had planned. She wanted to be there when he would come and get me for our dinner.
That night, Izzie helped me get ready, and when his knock on the door sounded and I wasn’t ready, Izzie opened the door and asked him in. It was our modus operandi when one of us had a date, give the other a moment alone, check the guy out and ask some questions.
We didn’t have the big bad father waiting but we had the even harder part, the best friend, she knew exactly what to ask and could judge if the person was fitting or not.
Izzie gave me her result later.

The dinner was perfect and we were on the same page with so many things, we had so much to talk and he was funny… I slowly fell in love with him and met him more often.
I remember Izzie always telling me not to rush things that something was wrong with him, but I was on cloud nine, didn’t wanna hear her pessimism. At one point, I remember us fighting over it, me telling her she was only jealous of what I had with Josh, and her being single.
I should have listened to my best friend, because soon I had found out she was right… from the beginning.

I snapped out of my little trip from memory lane and looked at him, his head snapped up and his eyes met mine.
I wanted to look away but I couldn’t. I saw him mouth ‘You are mine’.
My heart began to race and I suddenly couldn’t remember the question that was asked, I looked at my hands, afraid to look up again and find his piercing eyes. I closed mine and thought of Jimmy’s friendly face, his smile, his eyes full of love, love only for me. I calmed down again, and the prosecutor scraped his throat, looking at me encouragingly, but I really didn’t remember the question. The judge looked at me;

“Miss Heron, could you please answer the question?”

Izzie’s POV
“Could you please repeat it?” I heard Mia reply, when the judge asked her to answer the question. Something had happened. I looked at Josh’ back, so I couldn’t see his face, but I saw Mia’s, and she got scared for a moment, I could see in her eyes he did something. I nudged Olly
“Did you see that? She got scared, he did something! How can he do that?!” I whispered loudly.
“Izzie, calm down, he can’t hurt her, everything he does now will only be bad for him, trust me. You can’t get out of control now, Mia will notice and you will hurt her”

“You can’t get out of control now, Mia will notice and you will hurt her”
I felt his breath on my skin and had to keep myself from gagging. Josh and I were standing in the kitchen and there was a little party going on to ‘celebrate’ him and Mia moving in together. But what had upset me just now, was him telling me he would restrict her in seeing me. I wanted to punch some sense into that man, did he really think he could keep Mia and me apart?
“You are such a bad influence to her, it would just be best if you took your distance. Let me be her best friend.”
I had taken a deep breath, ready to go all out on him when Mia had walked in. She hugged me and whispered in my ear “Aren’t you happy for me? He is the best right?!” I remember Josh’ look, when I looked over her shoulder, he only shook his head and I could do nothing else than keep my mouth shut. I didn’t want to lose my best friend, I would have to think of some other way to point out to her that he was no good and that she had to leave him.

But she was in 7th heaven and wouldn’t hear anything I said. She had shut me down after that first date, when I told her I wasn’t sure about him, when I told her she had to watch out, take it slow, but I had no proof, it was just a hunch and her hunch was exactly the other way around. I was fighting to keep my best friend, but I was losing.

Josh had kept his word. I saw Mia less and less and every time I triedto see her or speak to her, he was there. Until one night, she had come to my house, asking me for a place to stay, because she and Josh broke up. That was actually only the beginning.

I watched Mia answer all these questions about her life with Josh, her life after Josh and the more I heard, the sicker I got. There was a lot of information that she never even told me and it made me so angry. How could I not notice? I only noticed I was clenching my fists so hard I drew blood, after Olly put his hand on mine and handed me a tissue “Iz, calm down, Mia will need you”. I nodded, and tried to calm down, but the anger was too much. I looked at my brave best friend and caught her eye. The look in her eyes was scared and she searched for help in mine, I needed to calm down, for her sake. So I put purpose in my glare and saw a smile on her face, it worked.

Mia’s POV
My gaze was connected with Izzie’s, it was like we were talking to each other without any words, but I could hear her voice in my head, encouraging me to go on. I knew she was proud of me, but I also knew the hardest part was still coming.

“Miss Heron, could you please tell us about the first time mr. Evans started to physically hurt you?”

“I.. I had to work late. Josh didn’t like me being out at night, he wanted me at home, told me he would worry too much if I wasn’t. That night I told him I would be ready at 8 pm, but my meeting ran late, so I got outside at 8.30. He was waiting for me, I got in the car and he drove me home, not saying a word. After he put the car on the driveway, he ran around the car and opened my door. I thought he was being a perfect gentleman, but he grabbed my arm, and dragged me inside. I told him he hurt me, but he wouldn’t stop.”
My breath got stuck in my throat and I didn’t know if I would be able to get the next part out. It was too hard.

“Miss Heron, take your time” the prosecutor tried to comfort me and handed me a glass of water.

I took a deep breath and continued “Once we got inside, he punched me in my stomach, told me that was for letting him worry that much. After that he hit me in a few more places, but always places that were covered with my clothes. He always made sure nobody would notice”

There were more questions about the abuse and I had to tell about the times he hurt me the most. It took a long time, but finally he was done with his questions. After the prosecutor was finished, it was Josh’ lawyer’s turn. He tried to trick me in saying I had actually been happy with him, but I was blessed with a considerate prosecutor, he objected when he was able to and to be honest, once I started talking, it kinda felt good to let everything out.

I watched Josh’ face get more and more grey, I hoped he would understand to the fullest that this would be the end for him and that he never would be able to get near me again. I even started to believe in it myself.

Then I could finally step down and I let myself fall down next to Olly and Izzie, both of them half hugging me and complimenting me at how well I’ve done. Olly told me this was a made out case and I wouldn’t have to be afraid about anything. In the meantime Josh was called to the stand again and he was only staring at me. My stomach tumbled again, I hated the effect he had on me, but I needed someone to reassure me. I was searching for help and felt a hand on my shoulder, looking up I found Olly’s kind eyes.
“It’s okay, Mia. I won’t let him near you.” I nodded swallowing thickly. I couldn’t do this anymore, I didn’t want to be here anymore “Can we go out?” I whispered at Olly.
“If you want to, we can” and with that, we left the room.

Once we got outside, Izzie hugged me tightly.
“You did amazing babe! I’m soooo proud of you!”
“Me too, Mia, you were amazing” Olly added.
I was lucky with friends like this,grabbed my purse and looked for my phone.
“I think I’m going to call Jimmy for a bit”
Olly and Izzie both nodded in agreement and I started to walk away from them a little, when we heard a lot of rumour coming out of the courtroom.

Then we heard Josh scream
“I SHOULD HAVE BEATEN YOU TO DEATH, YOU UNGRATEFUL BITCH! I DID EVERYTHING FOR YOU, AND I GOT NOTHING BACK, YOU WERE NEVER TRUE TO ME, YOU NEVER LISTENED TO WHAT I TOLD YOU TO DO. I SHOULD HAVE ENDED YOU WHEN I HAD THE CHANCE!”

“ORDER! I WILL HAVE ORDER IN MY COURTROOM! MR. EVANS! SIT DOWN!”

I looked at Olly and Izzie, scared, putting the phone back into my purse.
“What is going on?”
Olly had a big smile on his face “I think he just confessed everything, that verdict will just be a formality. Congratulations, you’ve won”

I couldn’t believe this had actually happened, I couldn’t believe it, but seeing the wide smiles of Izzie and Olly got me back on earth, it was true, it was really true, Josh was gone and I could live my life again. I could finally do what I wanted, with my friends, with Jimmy... Jimmy....

Olly got me out of my moment of dreaming “Come on! Let’s celebrate! I’m taking you both out to dinner!” He put his arms around us and took us out of the courtroom. I would talk to Jimmy later, tell him I wouldn’t be going anywhere anytime soon, but now... now we celebrate!

Notes

WEEKEND!!!
YEAH!!

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