Convincing Amy (Amy, #1)

Chapter 37: Innocence

Chapter Thirty-Seven
INNOCENCE

There was not an image Matthew appreciated more than that of his girlfriend’s innocence. Her determination to do well through her studies and career Matthew associated with that of a child’s innocence as he or she learned of new things the world had to offer, overjoyed when they worked in their favour.

Amy was sitting upright in Matthew’s bed, leaning against the headboard, glasses on, focusing solely on the textbook in front of her. Her eyes darted back and forth over the information that the reference had to offer her ahead of her first of many exams. She did not hear Matthew enter the bedroom, nor notice when he walked into the walk-in wardrobe that led to the en suite bathroom. She did not react when the shower began gushing water, but made a mental note of Matthew’s distant presence. However, she became so absorbed in a particular chapter that she jumped as the bed covers beside her moved and another body moved onto the mattress.

“Time for bed,” Matthew smiled, resting his head on Amy’s lap as she refused to look away from the text.

“In a minute,” she mumbled, reading on.

“You’ve read that book ten hundred times. You know it word for word.”

“But there’s still one chapter I’m not one hundred per cent sure on. I need to read it-”

“You need to sleep,” Matthew interrupted. “You’re not going to do any good on your exam if you’re sleep-deprived. You need to rest and relax your mind for tomorrow, Amy.”

Amy did not reply, but turned a page and read on.

“Amy...” Matthew began, trying to pry the book out of Amy’s grasp.

“Oi!” she bellowed, frustrated at his constant nagging. “Just let me read this chapter!”

Sighing, Matthew gave up and reached over to the television remote control on Amy’s bedside table – it had ended up there on many previous occasions after Amy had taken control of what they tuned into each night. He flicked through the channels, finding an unfinished football game. He watched it to the final score, not truly paying attention, listening, instead, to Amy’s slow breathing as his ear lay against her abdomen. When he looked up to see whether she was still reading or not, he was pleasantly surprised to see that she’d fallen into a gentle slumber, her book flat against her chest. Matthew smiled and removed the book from her feeble fingers, setting it down on the bedside table before dragging Amy down into her comfortable sleeping position. She stirred a little but did not wake – her mind was beyond exhaustion over the day’s extreme study. Matthew lay beside her, his arm lightly around her body, and together they slept peacefully through the night.

***

Amy felt that her entire existence lay in the papers in front of her. The words she’d scrawled down as quickly as possible would make sense to those with an understanding of the legal sector, but for everyone else, it would sound like a load of mumbled, made-up words.

Ever since she’d recovered from the sudden death of her father and abrupt departure of TJ’s love, Amy had worked tirelessly on her efforts to become a successful criminal lawyer. She felt that her motivation came from both Peter Carter and Tyson Jenkins as she wanted justice for the victims of criminal offences. Victoria Police were never able to find the murderers of Amy’s father, and she felt that she wanted to ensure that such a degree of pain did not have to be experienced by other families whose loved ones were taken away so unfairly. As for her relationship with TJ, she never wanted another girl, teenager, woman to go through the violence and abuse that she did.

With these factors in mind, Amy read through her work one last time with only five minutes of the examination to go.

Furious with herself, she crossed out a sentence that made no sense whatsoever and amended it with one that fit in with the rest of her answer. She did this a number of time on each of her answers, her hands shaking, her body sweating uncontrollably due to the incredible heat. She was about to turn to the final page of her examination paper when the exam was called to a conclusion.