“Honey, are you alright? Baby?”
I caught part of what the judge said. Oakley breathed a sigh of utter relief and fell against me.
“Ten years imprisonment.”
“What?” Jasper roared, leaping out of his seat. “How the fuck is that justice? The dick needs to rot—”
“Enough,” I growled and pulled him back. This was not good. There were no cameras allowed in the room so thankfully, no one could take pictures, but the press were going to love this.
“Let go,” he shouted, snatching his arm out of my hand and turning to Frank. “Just wait until you get out you sick bastard.”
Jasper’s face was red in anger. His eyes looked so dark; rage had completely taken him over. “I’m gonna kill you, I swear.”
Oakley stood, shakily, but managed to push past me, shoving Jasper towards the door. I was mad at him. Yes, the sentence was shit; he would probably be out in eight, but Jasper’s reaction was not helpful for Oakley.
“What is wrong with you?” Oakley hissed at him, throwing her arms up. Jasper spun around and faced her. His tortured face was the only thing stopping me from laying into him. “Do you really want to go to jail for that? That piece of…?” she tailed off.
He frowned. “I don’t care about me. I want to kill him. I want to fucking kill him.”
“Stop it, Jasper. Just stop. You can’t change a thing. It’s over, it’s done. Do you really think that even if you did kill him it would make anything better? Do you think throwing your life away and going to prison will magically make this go away?” she shouted at him. “Stop. Please. I don’t want to lose you.”
His face softened, and I knew Oakley had gotten through to him. Linda appeared next to us and grimaced. “Jasper, there will be no action taken, but I suggest that you leave immediately. Go home and cool down.”
Sarah pushed Jasper towards the door. “I’m so sorry, Linda. Out. Come on, Oakley.”
“One minute, Mum.” Sarah looked between Linda and Oakley, then walked through the door, her arm firmly on Jasper’s shoulder.
Oakley turned to Linda. “Thank you, so much. For everything.”
Linda smiled. “You’re welcome. You take care of yourself.”
“Thank you,” I said. Thank you seemed too weak for what Linda had done for Oakley. She nodded. I took Oakley’s hand, and we walked to the exit. “How do you feel about the sentence?”
She shrugged. “I wanted it to be longer, but there’s nothing I can do about it. I’m not going to dwell on it. He’ll be on the sex offenders’ register, for life and, hopefully, closely monitored when he gets out.” Hopefully he’ll be murdered in prison. I didn’t say it out loud. “And it’s officially over. No more court.”
“You did it, babe.”
“Yeah, I guess.” She shook her head. “Whatever, it’s done. I’m tired of being ‘that poor little girl’. I just want to move on now.”
I was so happy to hear her say that. No more making herself sick worrying about whether people would believe her or not. It was time for all of us to put it behind us and think about the future. “What do you want to do now?”
“Lunch at your parents’, remember?”
“We don’t have to.”
“I want to. Normal stuff now, okay?”
I smiled and kissed the side of her head. Normal felt good.
“Sounds great to me.”
“Oakley! Oakley.” A chorus of her name was screamed the second we were out of the building. Our plan of getting out with as little attention on her as possible was, well, impossible now.
I pulled her close against my side she pressed her face into my shoulder to shield herself. They had a job to do but I wished they would leave her alone. She didn’t need this to be any harder that it already was.
“Oakley, do you feel justice was served?”
“What are you going to do now?”
“How do you feel about the sentence?”
“Ignore them,” I whispered in her ear. Jasper held the back door of the car open for her, and I pushed us both through the crowd to get her in.
Jasper ran around to the driver’s side as soon as Oakley was in. I jumped in after her and slammed the door shut.
“Okay?” Sarah asked as we sped off.
“Yeah. I’m looking forward this dying down,” Oakley mumbled. I hoped that it would be over soon, but I wasn’t going to hold my breath.
Sarah reached to the back of the car and took Oakley’s hand. “It’ll be fine, sweetheart. There will be another big story soon enough, and they’ll leave us all alone.”
“I’m sure when they realise you don’t want to tell your story or give a statement they’ll get bored,” Jasper added, turning to look at us briefly.
“Yeah.” Oakley agreed. I wasn’t sure if she believed that or not though, she didn’t sound sure.
“Where to, Oakley?” Jasper asked.
“Cole’s,” she replied.