【09】Scary Thoughts

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As I sat in the prison's visiting area the next day, after a restless night spent overthinking and worrying, I wasn't sure what to do once I met with Lex

ओह! यह छवि हमारे सामग्री दिशानिर्देशों का पालन नहीं करती है। प्रकाशन जारी रखने के लिए, कृपया इसे हटा दें या कोई भिन्न छवि अपलोड करें।

As I sat in the prison's visiting area the next day, after a restless night spent overthinking and worrying, I wasn't sure what to do once I met with Lex. Should I tell him I'd found the ring? He might be mortified to hear I had uncovered his secret; one he most surely didn't want me to find out about. He was in a humiliating position, and I didn't want to add to it by telling him I'd been looking at his stuff and found the ring.

In a way, I wanted him to know that if he'd asked, I would have said yes. Well, maybe not on New Year's Eve during his potential attempt, because we weren't doing this while he was drunk and undressed. I wanted him at full capacity when he proposed. But otherwise, it was clear I wouldn't have refused a life by his side, me as his wife and him as my husband.

When Lex arrived, I was still debating my options, having a hard time focusing because of the lack of rest. I stood when he reached me, but he didn't make a move toward me, sitting on a stool right away. Before I could take offense, I noticed he was somewhat lost in his thoughts, having his own internal conflicts to deal with.

Just like every time I saw him, he looked more tired, his eyes emptier, his beard darker and longer. He was wasting away slowly, each day eating up a little more of his soul.

"Hi," I greeted him, forcing a smile on my face and sitting opposite from him. He didn't answer, his jaw squared, his gaze lost on the metallic table between us. "What's wrong, Lex?"

"I just had a call with my lawyers."

I froze, already trying to imagine how this could justify his foul mood. Had the case taken a turn for the worse? Were we going to lose? No, we couldn't. There was no way we'd lose. Lex wasn't staying in here until the day he died.

"And? What's happening?"

"They think our best defense is character evidence."

"What is that?"

"It means getting people on the stand to attest to what an honorable and upstanding man I am, to prove to the jury I couldn't possibly be Nammota."

"That's a good thing, right?" I wondered, hoping for the best.

"How is that a good thing, Andrea? I have more enemies than I have friends. Apart from a pathetic handful of people, who can we possibly put on the stand?"

"There are more people who care about you than you think, Lex," I noted, taken aback by his aggressivity. "Oli would do it. All the guys from the dev team would, actually. And Kev, Michelle, Eva, me... Also your family."

"My family wants to stay out of this. How is it going to look for a jury that my own family can't be bothered to testify for me? The prosecution will build a solid case against me, probably using my autism to explain how I'm an outcast, how I view society in a different manner, how I wanted some payback from it..."

The information about his family broke my heart and then made my blood boil. I couldn't fucking believe the Colemans would turn their backs on their own people like this. Not even his sisters?!

The Love Algorithm - Vol. IIIजहाँ कहानियाँ रहती हैं। अभी खोजें