Page 42 of A Little Discovery

“Sorry, your honor,” Eric mumbles while the district attorney looks pleased. I hate seeing my friend up there miserable. I didn’t even know he was supposed to be a part of this.

“Mr. Mendleton, have you had any contact with the accused since you both became adults?” he asked.

Eric starts pulling at his fingernails which is a sure sign that he is getting overwhelmed and is likely to blow. I am trying to figure out a way to signal for a break before he does, but there’s no one to notify.

“She approached me around midterms of my junior year, making a scene in the quad at my school,” he says running his fingers through his hair. “She claimed I got her pregnant at some party, but that was impossible.”

“Were you at the party?” the attorney asks.

Eric scoffs to hide the pain underneath before answering, “Yes. I was there.”

“How do you know you did not impregnate the accused there?”

“Because I’m gayer than a rainbow in a designer shoe store during pride week, that’s why!” Eric snaps before flinching and regaining his composure. “Sorry. That was rude. I am in no way attracted physically to the female form, so there is zero chance I would ever have sex with a woman, even one as butch as Sabrina Carlisle.”

The judge bangs his gavel a few times to call the courtroom back to order after Eric’s statement before telling him, “I won’t warn you again, son. Watch the language.”

Eric looks chagrined, but his leg is bouncing like crazy. He is going to do something very dumb if this doesn’t end soon.

“Mr. Mendleton, is there any time at said party that you do not remember what happened?”

Eric glares at the district attorney before telling him, “I remember every single millisecond of that party, and not once did I see a female in my vicinity.”

He looks up to the judge with a vulnerability that he doesn’t let show easily. “Can I please be done, your honor?”

My heart is breaking for him. The judge tells him he isn’tdone yet, but grants a recess so that he can get a break. I do the only thing I could do for my friend. I guard the bathroom door so no one else would hear his pain and anguish while he is forced to remember the worst night of his life, yet again.

“Mr. Wright, do I need to repeat the question?”

The voice of the district attorney brings me back to the present and the fact that I am on the stand now. I shake my head and answer who had hired me, what my findings were, et cetera. These were all things that should have been a part of my testimony in the divorce hearing.

“And when did you turn the report and photographs over to your client?”

I tell him and he does his spiel, entering the items into evidence which the judge and defense accept.

Then he starts questioning me about the deeper investigation I conducted into Sabrina and my findings of fraud, larceny, and a string of false identities that were used in previous marriage scams dating back to when she was barely sixteen. Three of those men died under suspicious circumstances, but the police could never find the wife after the initial interviews.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t even take the jury an hour to come back with guilty verdicts on almost every charge brought against her. The woman is going to be behind bars for the rest of her days.

LUCKY

After Eric was forced to testify at the trial yesterday, I broughthim home. He hasn’t shared his secrets with me yet, and it is honestly his choice if he ever decides to do so. I just know that Daddy cried for our friend, and that he needed to be home, surrounded by the people who love him just the way he is. None of us have been willing to leave him alone since we got back.

I jump when the dinger goes off on the microwave to let me know the queso is heated up.

Eric already took the chips and our drinks down into the basement, so when I get down there he arranges our little fiesta for two. I don’t really care what movie he puts on because this is all about making him feel better.

I don’t even know why they made him testify. There was more than enough evidence against my ex-wife that it was cruel and unnecessary to make Eric take the stand. But the D.A.’s office said that his testimony shows that she targeted younger outcasts with money to run her scam. Her thing was apparently making sure the guy was at a party or gathering where there is enough room for her to cast suspicion that they could have had sex and him not remember it.

That didn’t fit with the reasoning the district attorney gave for putting him up on the stand. He says he remembers that night. I have the feeling Eric wants nothing more than to be able to forget it based on the look in his eyes now. I miss Sassy…

I shake the bad thoughts away and squeeze my friend in a side hug, making sure not to spill the queso. Queso is sacred after all. Time to banish the shadows…

“Can we watch something with epic fantasy?” I ask him, giving my best impression of puppy dog eyes.

He gives me the first genuine smile I’ve seen in weeks and throwsa chip at my head.

“Go pick one out, ya dork!”

He’s going to be alright. Daddy and I will help make it all better.

Lucky and Spencer will continue to be a special part of Kink Manor. Eric’s story continues in Drag Me Up, the next book in the Manor Drive Series.