Who I Am With You (Imagination #10) - Staci Stallings Page 0,59

can’t believe his lawyers wouldn’t have him here.”

A bailiff was attempting to get the jurors into some semblance of order on the other side of the room, and they had just accomplished that when there was movement coming down the center aisle. Just why, Taylor would never have been able to say, but it grabbed her attention, and she turned toward it.

At first, she didn’t recognize the clean-cut, well-suited young man that came in with the much older gentleman who was in a much more expensive suit. However, when his gaze tripped down the empty rows between them and met hers, her heart jumped into her throat. Chris.

She couldn’t have looked away had she tried. He looked so very different, like he was headed to the office for a big presentation. The only thing was, the physical change hadn’t changed the inner spirit, and when his gaze caught hers, all she saw was the evil and arrogance still so inherent in him. It was a strange sensation, however, because rather than shrinking from his gaze or even staring him down, she tilted her head in marked curiosity. He had always looked so invincible, so intimidating, and he tried even now. But something was different, not in him, but in her.

He only had the power she gave him, and she was through with giving away her power to anyone else. Just like Job, he had taken everything from her—her honor, her dignity, her self-worth, her confidence. He had tried to strip her of her friends and her family, even her own life. But he hadn’t won. No. He hadn’t won.

What had Merel said about love winning in the end?

Taylor shook her head with only a small movement as she looked at him just before he crossed past where she sat, bound for one of the front tables. It was crazy how many thoughts could go through her mind at literally the same moment. He was there, being led around, about to be tried as a criminal. She was here, with her family and her friends. He hadn’t won, but she already had.

“Hey, Tay.”

Her name coming from behind her startled her, and she turned to find Clara right there in the row behind her, hugging her almost before she got turned around. “Clar…?”

“Hey, Ry,” Greg said, putting his hand back as they shook hands.

Shock ran through Taylor. “What? You guys didn’t have to come today.”

Clara smiled and patted her shoulder. “We’re in this together, remember?”

At that moment Jason came in from the back, and Mitchell stood to go speak to him. Their conversation was too quiet to hear, but it rapt everyone’s attention surrounding her. The two of them shook hands, and Jason continued on to the front as Mitchell came back to sit by Greg. He ducked toward Greg, and Taylor wondered what that was about.

She questioned Greg without words, and he leaned toward her.

“Mitchell said Jason was surprised to see us all here,” Greg said. “Guess they didn’t expect that.”

“All rise,” the bailiff down front said, “the Honorable Judge Suzanne Galen presiding.”

What Taylor would most remember from that moment was that when she stood, she was not standing alone.

The process was tedious in the extreme. After the judge went through a ton of information and several potential jurors stood to explain in detail to the judge why they couldn’t serve, the judge went through multiple questions about if the jurors would be fair and impartial, if they could indeed find someone guilty and sentence them, which Greg thought was kind of a weird question. Several more jurors were dismissed, and then the lawyers handed out questionnaires. It was like watching a room full of people take a final exam. There was a lot of paper shuffling but not much else for nearly 30 minutes. Exciting it was not.

When that was done, the lawyers sifted and sorted through the papers, and Greg wondered just how long this all might take. The lawyers shuffled through the papers and read out numbers. Jurors would stand and leave without any discussion whatsoever. It was all fascinating but rather cryptic.

Only once when the defense lawyer was conversing with the judge about a potential juror did Chris dare a glance back at them. Greg saw it, and immediately his protective side leapt out. There were at least ten rows of what amounted to theater seating between them, but if Chris so much as flinched their direction, Greg would take him out without a second thought.

“Move to