“No,” I told them, swallowing hard. “She won’t want to talk to you about this. Just keep her company long enough for me to shower and I’ll break it to her myself. She has another counseling session tonight so we’ll go straight there after we leave. It might do her some good.”
Kier bent down and wrapped his arm around my neck, pulling my head down to rest on his shoulder. “It’s gonna be all right. I don’t know how things are going to go from here but I do know that everything will work itself out in the end.”
I showered and changed quickly while Liam sat with Em. I was fucking devastated about what I was about to do to Em. Everything was falling apart, including me, and I had no clue how to keep it all together. If there was a way of getting out of this dark hole without Em suffering even more, I couldn’t see it. As soon as I opened the door to the office, she knew that something was wrong.
“What’s happened?” she asked me softly. Looking around the room, I could see the devastation on the guy’s faces and the worried look on Danny’s. Saying nothing, I held out my hand to her, and she took it. I closed the door behind us, leaving Kier to tell Danny. Sitting up against the ropes seems to have been where I spent most of the day so that’s where I told her.
When it was done, she put her head in my lap, curled up into the fetal position, and sobbed. Her anguished cries racked her body, and I did nothing but hold her tight and stroke her hair. I didn’t tell her everything would be all right, or that Frank would get sent down. I’d only made one promise to her as she wept, I made another to myself. My promise to her was that he would never get to touch her ever again. My promise to myself was that justice would be served. Either in the courtroom or out of it. If he went down, I’d let it go. If he went free, vengeance would have its day.
*
It wasn’t a huge surprise to find the motley crew of both our sets of friends standing around in suits on the steep steps of the law courts.
“You look like the cast of Ocean’s Eleven,” I told them.
“I’m Brad Pitt,” Kieran called out.
“I’m George Clooney,” Liam said.
“I should be Brad Pitt,” Tommy grumbled.
“Nah, you’d be one of the stupid brothers,” Kieran told him.
“Do I get to be one?” Earnshaw asked.
“Depends,” Tommy answered. “Who d’you wanna be?”
“How ’bout Don Cheadle?” he said.
“You know you’re not black, don’t you?” Tommy asked him seriously.
“Don’t be racist,” Kieran told him.
“I’m not being fuckin’ racist. I’m just asking if he knows.” Kieran turned to me and Em. “You ever hear that saying, ‘sometimes I listen to you speak and I wonder who ties your shoelaces.’”
We all turned to Tommy, and Kieran winked as Em giggled.
*
For an hour, we stood on those steps shivering so Em felt like she could breathe. Even Danny sat out there with us.
Finally she turned to me. “You know much I love you,” she told me quietly.
“I know. Why?” I asked warily, knowing that I wouldn’t like the sound of what was coming next.
“I don’t want you to come in with me,” she told me.
“Why?” I asked through clenched teeth.
“It’s enough for me knowing that you’re on the other side of the door. It’s enough for me to get through this. But I can’t go through every detail of what happened, knowing that you’re listening. I’d try and make it sound better than it was because I don’t want to hurt you. And when I’m cross-examined, I’ll be worried about you losing your temper at the barrister. If I know that you’re just a door away, I can do what I need to, and I can do it honestly,” she explained.
“Emily O’Connell,” the clerk called out in a clear voice, and we all stood.
“I don’t fuckin’ like this, Em; you’re my wife. You shouldn’t have to face Frank alone. I should be with you.”
“You will be,” she said and kissed me.
Chapter 16
Apart from the hour they had for lunch, during which neither of them really spoke, Em and Danny were both in that courtroom all day. When they came out, Danny looked devastated, and Em just looked vacant. If it had gone badly, I expected tears or at least a boatload of hugs. But it was like she’d completely shut down.
“How did it go?” I asked.
“Oh, fine,” she said. I went to pull her in for a hug. Fuck knows I needed it but she moved out of the way, telling me she needed the bathroom. Once she’d gone, I turned to Danny.