The Pretend Boyfriend (The Pretend Boyfriend #4)(16)
Author: Artemis Hunt

As the Emergency room doctor gets down from the witness stand, she shoots a murderous look at Brian.

Norma Hennessey says, “With that, the prosecution rests, your Honor.”

A buzz goes through the courtroom crowd. Brian’s bones ache all over. The chair is uncomfortable enough. Not to mention having to relive the testimonies – of having evidence of his own guilt being flung repeatedly like stones in his face.

Then Karen Sandler stands up.

“The defense calls Brian Morton to the stand.”

12

Sam can’t take her eyes off Brian on the witness stand. He is wearing Gucci today, and his suit is a dark green color that matches his eyes and sets them off. He is pale, and his eyes are large in his face, but he is looking remarkably beautiful amid his obvious angst.

She hopes the jury is coming to the same conclusion: How can a man as beautiful as this possibly need to rape a woman if he needs sex?

Of course, nothing is ever as clear cut in the cold light of day. Immensely virile and beautiful men have had the compulsion to dominate and rape women throughout the history of time. Sam is not so obtuse to think that a beautiful man would be innocent of such crimes.

But in Brian’s case, he was set up. Now it’s a matter of proving it.

But like Karen said, it is not so simple. Motive and what exactly happened that night are two interlinked subjects, but may be viewed as separate incidences by the jury.

Karen goes through the spiel she has rehearsed with Brian. All Brian has to do is tell the truth of what happened that night. Right up to when he stopped remembering.

Sam listens, the knot in her stomach tightening as he goes through the story she has heard and analyzed a hundred times.

“What was going through your mind when you saw Ms. Faulkner in the lobby of your apartment building?”

“She was . . . is a very attractive woman.” Brian says this without inflection.

“Did you purposefully try to seduce her?”

“Yes. It’s something that I . . . instinctively do whenever I see an attractive woman.” Brian takes a deep breath. “I try to get into her pants.”

A ripple goes through the crowd. Sam flinches. But this is what Brian wanted. Nothing but the uncompromising truth.

“How many women have you seduced, Mr. Morton?”

“Since I was sixteen? I’m not sure of the exact number . . . but it must have been over a thousand.”

Gasps all round. Sam is certain that this is something that Brian will not be proud of today of all days. On the stand, Brian appears appropriately glum.

“Why so many, Mr. Morton?”

Brian pauses. “Why so many? I don’t know. I’m not the type who settles down, I guess.” He doesn’t look at Sam when he says this. “Because I wanted them . . . and they wanted me. It was all completely consensual.”

“Objection to the word usage of ‘all’,” Norma says. “What you did to Ms. Faulkner was not consensual.”

“What he allegedly did,” Karen says heatedly.

“Please proceed, Mr. Morton,” the Judge says, rolling his eyes.

“Asking her up to my apartment was a seduction ploy,” Brian admits. “But that was all it was.” He goes on to describe exactly what happened – up to the moment he blanked out.

“Do you consume a lot of alcohol normally?” Karen asks.

“Yes. I’m a social drinker. I take about three or four shots a day.”

“Do you get drunk easily?”

“No.”

“Do you consume drugs?”

Brian hesitates. “Yes. Sometimes.”

“What sort of drugs?”

“Club drugs, most of the time. I do it to get high. Ecstasy. Special K. Coke, sometimes.”

“Crystal meth?”

“Once or twice, but as a rule, no. I’m not an addict. I can do without drugs.”

“Did you imbibe or ingest any drugs on that day?”

“No, definitely not. My toxicology results came back negative. My blood alcohol was also within normal limits.”

“Have you had blackouts before?”

“No. Never. This was the first time.” Brian looks anxious as he says this.

Karen takes up his blood report. She reads from it. “Everything within normal parameters except for serum Creatinine, which is high, and blood potassium.”

She pauses significantly. Sam knows she is going to bring it up again later.

Brian winds up his testimony as to the night in question. Total amnesia as to what happened.

Karen says, “Let’s talk about something else that might be relevant to the case. Let’s talk about college and when you met Ms. Delilah Faulkner, who was then known as Ms. Adele Jankovic, for the first time.”

The court holds a collective breath.

Hesitantly, Brian launches into his story of what happened with Adele back in college. He speaks haltingly, as if the guilt is threatening to swamp him. Sam knows this is no act. Brian is truly consumed with guilt at what he had done to Adele. He believes he must atone for it. He has truly paid the price for it, and is still paying.

Sam cannot see Delilah’s face from her vantage, but from the rigid way the redhead holds her shoulders, she knows that Delilah is every bit as strained.

“And why did you perpetrate this ‘trick’ on Adele Jankovic?” Karen asks gently.

Brian swallows visibly. “Because I was young and dumb and all those things you associate with college jocks. Because I could. And I didn’t think beyond that . . . of how much it would hurt another person. It’s no excuse, but it was what it was.”

“The fallacies of youth,” Karen muses.

Brian’s expression wears so much pain that Sam quails. She knows it’s not something he put on either.

“I’m sorry.” He faces Delilah directly. “I’m sorry for what I did. I had no idea it would lead to this.”

“Objection. The defendant is accusing the plaintiff of something which is not fact-based.”

“I was getting to that,” Karen says. “Now tell me what happened on the night of _______, Mr. Morton.”

Fast forward to the recent future. Sam clutches her purse in her hands for support. It is the night of Brian’s visit to Adie right after Sam’s arrest and bail. The night he offered his body to Adie like a sacrificial lamb.

“Objection.” Norma Hennessey is on her feet again. “This has no relevance whatsoever to the case, your Honor.”

“Once again, I’m establishing motive as to why Ms. Faulkner alleged that Mr. Morton raped her on the night of _______.”