The Twelve Tables Ch. 13

"She's not alone," Andie said softly. "I will be by her side through everything."

"I can't do this right now," Peri got unsteadily to her feet. Tears threatened to roll from her eyes. "I have to be in court to condemn your sister, Josh's sister," she said her voice turning hard. "Thank you for saying what you said but we both know the family is the most important thing in Josh's world. I have to do this despite the fact that he will never forgive me." Now that she had started to speak the words came tumbling out. "This is my fault and they all blame me. I can see it in their eyes every time they look at me. Both of your families know that if I wasn't there at the facility, in her face every day that she wouldn't have been pushed to do it. She hated me so much that she wanted me dead," Peri's voice cracked.

"Maybe it would have been better for you all if I had died then there would be no witnesses to testify against her," Peri drew her shoulders back painfully and winced. "I can't just walk away and pray she doesn't find me again, though, so no need to try to be nice to me. I won't change my mind about the trial." She turned and walked slowly towards the nearby bathrooms, keeping her head up and her back straight knowing the people at the table and probably in the restaurant were watching her. It was too hard to face even Lucia and she knew she could never face Josh again.

She let herself cry for a few minutes then stiffening her resolve she tried as best she could to fix her makeup. Lucia was right about one thing; she was strong and brave and she could see this through to the bitter end. When she returned, Lucia and Dino had left the restaurant and Andie looked shaken.

"Why didn't you tell me that was how you felt?" Andie said still shocked.

"So you could tell Charles?" Peri said acidly and instantly regretted it. "I didn't mean that. I'm sorry" she sighed. "I'm just feeling sick about today," she admitted.

"No one blames you sweetheart, least of all Josh," Andie said and got a scowl in return from her daughter. "We'll get you some barley sugar to suck on and settle your tummy. You haven't eaten much for days," Andie said, changing the subject quickly and looking at the almost untouched breakfast.

The two associates who had remained with them reminded them of the time and escorted them from the hotel. It was a short drive to the courthouse and the driver pulled into a small local chemist for Andie to purchase some barley sugar and glucose jelly beans.

Grateful that there were no external stairs to this building, Peri followed the associates into the building and up in an elevator to the third floor, where she was shown into a courtroom and given a seat at the end of the prosecution table. Andie had had to wait in the meeting room. The lesser charge of attempted murder for which she was the key witness was being held alongside the first charge of premeditated murder so she would hear all of the details. The assault charges were pending in another state and so had to wait until this trial was done.

Nik arrived looking glamorous in a blonde bob and designer dress despite the manacles she wore. With no audience to preen for she looked sullen and resentful. Aside of the lawyers, jury and the court staff they were the only two people in the room and Peri felt ill looking at her would-be killer.

"I'm not sure I can do this," she whispered to her lawyer as they came to their feet and the judge entered.

"You may not have to," her lawyer replied cryptically in hushed tones.

The swearing in of the jury and opening statements from both sides seemed to take an extraordinarily long time and Peri visibly sagged in her seat as she listened to everything being said. She immediately sat up in shock when she heard the name of the first witness for the prosecution, Sabrina Avic. She couldn't work out what the woman had to do with this case and panicked that she was being ambushed by her own legal team.

"Miss Avic, can you tell us in your own words how you came to be here today," The chief council asked.

"I got a phone call from Lawrence Kerrigan asking if I could bring some wardrobe and personal items from Nik's home for her to use during the trial. I agreed and flew down last night," she began.

"Can you point to the person you refer to as Nik, please," he interrupted her and nodded as she pointed. "Let the record show she has pointed out Veronica Maris as the person known to her as Nik." He looked back at the witness, "Please go on."

"Lawrence took me to the jail to see Nik this morning, and I met her in an interview room. She wasn't happy with the wardrobe I brought for her and became quite angry with me, about it. She began ranting about how stupid I was," she stated looking over at Nik as she spoke. "She said that if I had done the job, properly she wouldn't have had to take matters into her own hands. She said it was my fault that she was in jail, and her family was mad at her."

"What did she mean by doing the job properly?" he asked to clarify.

"When Peri had first started dating her brother, Nik and I conspired to scare Peri away from him. We caused her to lose her job and I assaulted her on the street, for which she was good enough not to press charges at the time."

"I see, please go on," he said politely.

"Not much of what she said made sense after that except that she had hurt Peri and she was angry that Peri was still alive," Sabrina said with a frown. "She was ranting and raving and honestly I was scared so I banged on the door for a guard."

"Surely Miss Maris was restrained and you had no reason to be scared," he said in a kindly tone.

"You weren't there. You didn't see her," Sabrina answered with concern, "She went crazy!"

"Objection your honour it goes to the state of mind," Lawrence stood up interrupting the testimony.

"The prosecution would like to enter into evidence the recording of that meeting, so the jury can see for themselves what Miss Avic has recounted, is true and correct," the chief councillor strode to the bench and handed him a CD of the recording. "All interview rooms are recorded as a safety procedure, aside of rooms one and two which are reserved for lawyers and their clients."

"Objection," Lawrence strode to the bench pressing flimsy objections covering confidentiality within the meeting rooms and his client's lack of privacy within the jail itself.

"A jail is not a country club even if your client treats it as one. I will allow it," the judge handed the recording to a bailiff and it was projected onto a large screen directly across from the jury box. Without the emotions of being trapped in the small room with Nik, Sabrina could clearly hear that Nik had tried to kill Peri but had also killed another man and she gasped audibly making the jury turn to look at her.

"No further questions your honour," the chief council sat down and Lawrence came to his feet.

"Miss Avic that must have been a frightening time for you but you came here as a friend to my client, the woman you know as Nik, did you not?" He asked.

"I did," she answered truthfully.

"She had never threatened or been violent toward you in the past? You were not worried going to the jail to meet her were you?"

"No," Sabrina shook her head.

"In fact, my client has never been physically violent or aggressive to anyone in the past to your knowledge has she?" Lawrence asked gently.

"No, Nik may rant but she hasn't hurt anyone, before now, I don't think," Sabrina said slowly turning her eyes toward the battered form of Peri.

"Do you believe that your friend, Nik, is capable of planning and executing two murders in cold blood?" Lawrence asked.

"Objection your honour. We are not here to hear thoughts and supposition. The defence needs to stick to the facts of the case," one of the prosecution team stood and stated loudly.

"Let me rephrase," Lawrence said before the judge could rule. "To your knowledge has Nik ever talked about plans to harm or kill another person?"

"When she was angry maybe, but we all do that and not mean it," Sabrina said steadily. "Who hasn't wanted to kill a hairdresser for a bad haircut?" she smiled as she saw some ladies in the jury box smile at her analogy.

"No more questions, your honour," Lawrence returned to the defence table as Sabrina was dismissed and escorted from the room.

Peri looked across at Nik, who had stayed surprisingly silent during the whole testimony. She sat primly and looked for all the world like an innocent woman. After a short recess for lunch in which Peri spoke to her team about the new evidence Sabrina had brought to the trial and how it looked even more certain that she would be convicted they returned to the courtroom and a parade of witnesses from the rehabilitation facility.

Each witness spoke of their relationship to the deceased and his charge, Nik, commenting that they had believed she was on the road to recovery. They noted that she was sweet natured when they saw her in the dining room and appeared happy. The video evidence of the night in question never showed her face though the body and hair at the time fit her description. She was known to have been with Giorgio before supper but had arrived without him, then had left the note for Peri and gone to the library. The evidence of this was shaky and the video tape grainy and hard to make out.

The proceedings were adjourned for the day, and Peri left with Andie feeling shaken and exhausted. She didn't feel that the day had gone very well at all aside of that first video with Sabrina in which she clearly stated that she wished Peri had died. She felt numb, and she ate a little under Andie's insistence before going to bed.

She had dozed off slightly when she woke to a kerfuffle in the main room of the suite they had been given by the prosecution team. "I'm going to talk to her whether she likes it or not," she heard Josh's demanding voice loud and clear before her door opened flooding the room with light.

"Go away Josh, I don't want to talk to you," she said pulling the blanket up over her head.

"Well that's just too bad because I want to talk to you," he sat on the edge of the bed heavily and sighed. "How could you think I would blame you for this?" He spoke to the blanket letting her stay beneath it. "This is my fault, I made you go there; I didn't stop you getting on that plane. It was my psychotic sister that did this, you did nothing but love me," his grief and despair finally overwhelmed him as his rage gave way to the truth that he had probably lost the woman he loved. "Always and forever," he said in a choked voice. "I promised you that, and I meant it. How could you think I would blame you for any of this."

Peri started to cry. She had no words and stayed silent under the blanket. She felt him lay down beside her and hug her blanket-covered form. She could feel his chest heave as he too cried at the unfairness of it all.

"Please Peri, look at me," he pleaded as she remained under the blanket.

"I can't, you will ask me to drop the charges and I won't be able to say no," she cried.

"I don't want you to drop the charges, no one does. Why would you think that?" Josh was shaking his head. He had been melting down since he had spoken to Lucia that morning, his anger at the whole situation the only thing keeping him from falling apart. "I'm so sorry I did this to you," he cried. "If I had thought for one moment that any of this would happen I would have stopped it. We could have moved away, lived a simpler life anything but this."

"I would never ask you to leave your family, it's me that has to go, alone," she said sadly finally peeling the blanket from her face. "I've messed up your whole life, your job, your friends, your family, and I can't do it anymore," she said sadly. "I don't want to do that to you, but I can't walk away from this trial, what if she gets out and..." her voice petered out not wanting to voice her fears. She turned her head to the side and looked at him properly seeing the tears in his eyes and the grief etched on his face.

"You don't understand, no one blames you, no one!" he said trying to convince her. "No one wants you to drop the charges, we are doing everything possible to help the prosecution, we suggested Sabrina come to see Nik when she asked for Bianca to bring her something to wear. No one not even Mama and Papa will lift a finger to help her now."

"You hired a lawyer for her," Peri accused as if catching him in the lie.

"Because he will protect the rest of us from scandal, not because we want her free," he explained seriously. "Lawrence knows our family laws, there will be no media, Nik won't get the notoriety or public sympathy she can manipulate to her advantage. He will defend her because that is his job and he must do it but the evidence against her is pretty overwhelming, and he continues to try get her to change her plea."

She reached up awkwardly with her left hand and touched his cheek, and he leant his head into her soft touch putting his hand over hers. He leant forward and kissed her forehead not wanting to scare her and have her hide from him again.

"From the time you stood toe to toe with me in the research dungeon I have known you were my other half, my soul mate. I'm am not letting you leave me, alone or otherwise. I want to marry you and have lots of babies and grow old together sitting on the big wraparound veranda of the house you dreamed into existence at the winery," he said staring into her eyes.

"This is why I couldn't see you. I want to believe everything you said but I can't, not until this trial is over," the tears came again. "I need to do this alone, for me. I need to let her know that she can't do stuff like this and expect just to walk away."

"You don't have to do this alone. I'm not going anywhere no matter what happens. I love you, and I can't let you go through it alone. I know that you have always been alone and looked after yourself, but you don't have to do that anymore. You have me, forever and always. Don't send me away again," his arms tightened around her and she winced making him move away startled.

"I'm broken Josh, I'm no good to anyone right now," she said sadly.

"I don't care. I'll take you any way I can get you, just don't send me away again," he said softly looking into her eyes.

"I'm exhausted I need to sleep, you have to go," she tried a different tack but said it with a smile. "You need to let me do this my way," she said quietly, "I need to do this my way."

"Promise to call me in the morning?" he asked softly, "or, at least, answer my call this time?"

"Okay," she nodded.

"Promise, I need to hear it, and then I will leave you to sleep," he said stroking a finger lightly over the swollen side of her face.

"I promise to answer your call in the morning," she said looking up at him.

"Sweet dreams," he placed a soft kiss on her forehead and stood from the bed. "Thank you for letting me see you," he whispered and left her room closing the door behind him, knowing that he hadn't given her much of a choice.

*****

The following morning in court was filled with a range of witnesses from the stores and places where Nik had used Peri's ID to purchase items including the phone store and the hairdresser that had changed her hair style. Peri felt physically ill as they played the phone message she had left on Peri's answering service. "So sorry you can't call the dead. Joshua if this is you, your welcome. You'll realise I did you a favour eventually." The message was punctuated by a peal of laughter and the beep to leave a message.

She couldn't imagine how he must have felt if he had heard that before they had found her injured and unconscious below the window. A voice analysis expert confirmed that the voice did, in fact, match that of Veronica Maris and a second witness from the phone company confirmed that the phone number in question was still registered to one Miss Peri Wells.

After a short adjournment for lunch, Peri was called to the stand. She told her story of Nik's manipulation of her life from the time she had started dating Josh leading up to the final meeting with her in the library and the attack that caused her injuries. She spoke not to the court but directly to Nik looking at her as if to deny what she was saying.

"I believe she was trying to kill me, but she wasn't clever enough. She was never smart enough to realise that it wasn't me she had to scare away from her beloved brother," Peri said pouring salt into the wound. "It was Josh she needed to scare away from me. Even now he is begging me for forgiveness for what you did. You may have hurt me physically, but you have scarred Josh, and even if I leave him, he will never forgive you."

"Why don't you just go away and die, like you were supposed to" Nik finally snapped. "Fuck, I have to do everything myself," she made a move to stand up and found herself caught in the shackles. She screeched in her fury. "Donati's don't go to jail, and when I get out of here, you are going to die like the stupid fat cow you are."

"Like Giorgio died! I know you killed him you fucking psycho bitch!" Peri screamed back as Nik was being restrained and the judge continued to bang his gavel.

"Giorgio was weak and stupid he deserved what he got, the stupid cock jockey, as if he could ever subdue me," she raged at Peri, who had come to her feet.

"You didn't have to kill him!" Peri screamed in her enraged state unable to help herself.

"You're right I wanted to kill him. I enjoyed it just like I will enjoy killing you when I get out. So get ready to meet the devil because you are going straight to hell," Nik was practically frothing at the mouth. She had sat and smiled for a day and a half chained to her chair while the reason for all her problems strutted around free as a bird and glaring at her. She struggled to break free of her manacles and strangle the girl who taunted her.

"You're fucking dead. Dead!" she screeched as she was dragged bodily by three guards from the courtroom to a nearby secure room. Peri collapsed into hysterical tears at finally facing Nik. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't stop crying and gasping for breath until she hyperventilated and passed out.

She woke as Josh carried her from the courthouse to a waiting car. She knew that if he had heard what she said to Nik and how she had goaded her into a confession, he wouldn't be looking at her with such concern and she hated herself for that.

"Josh let me go, I've done something so very awful," she began to cry again, "Just leave me alone."

"No," he said stubbornly and pushed his way into the car with her, his concern palpable. "There is nothing you could have done in that courtroom to make me leave you, now," he said staring her in the eyes. "Nothing."

His phone rang, and she grabbed his arm, "Don't answer it." She said in a panic.

"Andie will want to know where I am taking you," he said soothingly and pulled his phone out of his pocket as it stopped ringing.

"Nik and I had a big fight in there, we were screaming at each other," she admitted. "As soon as she is released she will kill me." Peri swallowed hard knowing that the family could still bring their influence to the trial and her sentencing, regardless of the fact that she had just confessed.

"Nik won't be getting out of jail until she is a very old woman, if ever," Josh said seriously. "You are in no danger from her now."

"I said some dreadful things," Peri continued to cry. Josh's phone rang again and he looked at it before answering.

"Andie, Peri, is fine, but we are on our way to Calvary Hospital just in case. You can meet us there," Josh said.

"Josh, take Peri to the hotel, not the hospital. Ben will call you there," Andie said carefully not wanting to alarm Peri.