I would like to dedicate this chapter to the lovely SallyMason1 , who took the time to help me so much with this story. Thank you Sal :)
October 6, 2013
"Miss Thorne, your answer please, and may I remind you that you are under oath."
Lost somewhere in in her thoughts, trying to figure out exactly what was going on, Victoria Thorne's head snapped up suddenly. Causing her to look directly into the brown beady eyes of an older gentleman.
He was the prosecution lawyer, in the Albany Magistrates court, Alistair James. In her confusion she regarded him for a moment, his hair had just begun to gray around the sides of this temples in salt and pepper flecks, his face was drawn and unfriendly. Menacingly he stood just centimeters away from her. He was waiting, expecting her to answer promptly so that he could catch her out, try to trip her up somehow on the first word that she said, with full intentions of forcing an admission of guilt from her.
"Sorry, could you please repeat the question," replied Victoria in a barely audible squeak. As she asked she made an effort to sit up straighter and push a few escaped strands of honey blonde hair back behind her ears and smooth down her white wrinkled shirt.
Squinting Alistair let out a breath of air to show his annoyance. "Very well, the question was, were you the only person to have contact with baby Emily on the night preceding discovery of her injuries."
Victoria opened her mouth to answer, but as she did another voice from across the room loudly, confidently called out.
"Objection your honor, there is no way my client could know if she was the only person to have contact with the child, she wasn't at the house or with the child after 6pm on the night in question."
Victoria looked in the direction the voice was coming from; it belonged to her Legal Aid defense lawyer Stacy Dylan, who was now out of her seat, leaning over her wooden desk in protest.
The judge, dressed in a black cloak, sitting to the side and slightly behind Victoria spoke in a low echoing voice that seemed to reverberate to every corner of the room. Victoria wondered if Judge Smithies had practiced to make her voice carry like that, or if it was just one of her natural talents "Please, rephrase your question Mr. James."
With her mouth still not fully closed from her attempt to answer the last question Victoria sat motionless. Looking at Alistair as he turned to face her again she prepared for another barrage of questions. How much longer she could hold herself together. Closing her mouth she drew in a deep breath of stale court room air, trying to block out her emotions and focus.
"Is it true Miss Thorne that you are the one who put your infant into bed on the night in question, September 23, 2013?"
"Yes."
"After putting baby Emily to bed at 6pm you left the house and returned 6 hours later at approximately 12am, correct?"
"Yes"
"Where did you go?"
"To visit with my sister-in-law Demi." As she said it, Victoria couldn't help but look past the lawyer and into the sea of stern faces in front of her, who were all watching, already judging her. She continued searching bravely until finally, relieved she found the comforting figure of her sister-in-law.
Demi was seated near the back of the room protectively holding her newborn baby Trevor close to her chest as she rocked and lightly tapped the tiny bundle rhythmically with her hand. Seeing them stirred an emotion deep in Victoria's breast, an ache that was never far from the surface. It was the sensation of not having her own daughter with her.
Fleetingly their eyes locked from across the room, and then Demi quickly turned away. Victoria's gaze rested for just a few moments on Amanda, who was seated next to Demi, with her long wavy black hair pulled tightly back, revealing her little elf like face. Amanda was watching her up on the stand with big brown terrified pleading eyes, another ache that was never far from the surface hit Victoria, this time it was right through the heart.
Victoria wanted to run from the stand, and hold the 8 year old girl she thought of as her daughter in her arms and tell her that everything was alright, but she couldn't on any account. Besides the fact that she couldn't leave the stand, more importantly, she realised, she couldn't promise that anything was going to be alright for any of them ever again.
"Miss Thorne, please pay attention, why were you at your sister-in-laws house?"
Looking back at Alistair Victoria answered, "My husband Daniel said I should get out of the house for a while and Demi, Danny's twin sister and I are friends."
"Why did your husband think you needed a night off, was there any particular reason?"
"Emily had been unsettled, and I was having a tough time adjusting... he thought that I needed a break, everyone needs a break now and again, don't they?"
"Yes I suppose they do, were you under the influence of alcohol or drugs that night?"
"Yes I had been drinking - just a few."
"According to a blood alcohol test taken by police officers at 8am the morning baby Emily was taken to the hospital you had more than just one or two drinks, what about drugs? Were you under the influence of drugs that night too?
"No!"
"I will remind you once again of your oath, Miss Thorne. Are you sure you were not taking any drugs, including prescription drugs,"
"I didn't understand the question," said Victoria in a panicky tone, " my doctor prescribed me some antidepressants; I was taking them on the night."
"Why were you taking antidepressants on your doctor's orders?"
"For depression."
"So you were clinically depressed and drunk on the night before Emily was found?"
Victoria lowered her gaze to look at the royal blue carpet beneath Alistair's feet and shrugged.
"Miss Thorne, please answer the question a simple yes or no would be sufficient!"
"Yes, I suppose I was." she said in a low voice.
"Thank you, so you come home early hours of the morning and fed the baby just after 12.00 am, did she seem ok then?"
Suddenly looking up at Alistair again Victoria said quickly, "No, I didn't feed her, I just looked in on her, found her sleeping, then went to bed."
"So it is safe to say that you were the last person that night, or early hours of the morning to have seen the baby, before her injuries were discovered the next morning, is that correct?"
Looking down again Victoria half whispered, "Yes."
A look of satisfaction crossed Alistair's face. Victoria felt as though a noose was over her head now, and he was planning on tightening it a whole lot more before he was done.
"Tell the court what happened the next morning, Miss Thorne, in your own words."
"Emily woke early in the morning, about 7 am, Danny told me to rest and he got up to her and a few moments later he yelled out to me to come quickly to Emily's room."
"What was wrong?"
"She was in her bed choking, she, she was blue..."
Suddenly everything become too much as Victoria began to relive what had happened that horrific morning two weeks ago. She couldn't hold back the tears that had been threatening to steal control over her from the beginning of her ordeal in the questioning box that morning, and over the course of her two week incarceration. As her tears began to flow and she fought back sobs, Alistair continued relentlessly.
"Once you got to the hospital and baby Emily was seen to you were arrested, why were you arrested?
"I was arrested for shaking Emily, but I thought she was choking when she was blue.... l didn't shake her hard enough to cause injury....not like...." she said making a violent shaking motion with both hands.
'You don't think you were shaking her hard enough? Is that just your opinion, or the opinion of a doctor?"
Defeated Victoria looked down at the dark wood grain desk where she was being held captive and whispered, "Mine."
Alistair turned to the people sitting watching the proceedings then to judge Smithies, "Let the records show that Victoria Thorne, who was drinking and taking prescription drugs for depression on the night before the incident, was the last person to have contact with the infant. Furthermore, she admits that she shook the baby prior to taking her to the hospital."
Alistair puffed up his chest and continued matter-of-factly, "Where on inspection it was discovered by hospital staff the baby had been shaken so violently it had caused brain trauma, cranial swelling, resulting in cerebral convulsions, countless bruises and three broken bones."
"Your honor please," cried Stacy.
"Sustained," sighed the judge furrowing her brow slightly.
"Thank you your honor, that is all," replied Alistair to the judge before smirking at Stacy as he took a seat at his nearby wooden desk directly in front of Victoria. She watched him as he sat down in front of Danny, who was staring intently at a piece of paper. Victoria hung her head, Danny had refused to look at her or even in her direction throughout the whole proceeding.
It cut her to the bone to think of losing Demi's friendship over a silly white lie, but to see Danny's face, his refusal to even acknowledge her existence completely shattered her. A fresh string of tears began to fall. Nothing mattered anymore, why didn't they just get on with it and lock her up and throw away the key.
"Miss Dylan, do you have questions for Miss Thorne?" asked Judge Smithies.
"Thank you your honor, said Stacy, getting to her feet and straightening her gray business suit skirt as she walked over to where Victoria was sitting. She smiled encouragingly as she began.
"Miss Thorne, would you intentionally hurt your baby,"
"No, I didn't hurt my baby!"
"We all seem to have come to the conclusion you put Emily down to sleep at 6pm and was she uninjured and contented."
"Yes."
"So at 6pm on the night before Emily's injuries were discovered, you left your baby in the care of your partner Daniel Jacobs, baby Emily's biological father and went to visit with another family member to have a break, to get out of the house."
"Yes."
"So although you went into her room, when you got home, you didn't really have contact with Emily. You didn't pick her up, or feed her, or change her, you just looked in on her, found her sleeping, and then left the room."
"Yes."
"So there is no way that you could have known if she was injured when you got home that night."
"No, I guess not."
"Not only were you absent when it is possible baby Emily could have been harmed, but when you did arrive home that night you still had no real contact with her. You didn't touch her until after her injuries were discovered by your partner the next day. Is that correct?"
Victoria nodded, about to reply, but at the same time felt her heart sink at the way the line of questioning was going.
"Leading the witness, your honor," cried out Michael.
The judges voice from next to Victoria vibrated through her as she said, "Sustained."
"I understand this must be very difficult for you Miss Thorne, but could you explain to the court what Mr. James was talking about when he said you were shaking Emily. So after you rushed into the room and saw Emily, what happened next?"
"I picked Emily up, because I thought she was choking, I did shake her a little bit, just to try and dislodge whatever was making her go blue. When that didn't work I turned her over and patted her back - all of it everything that I did was to try to help her breathe, not to hurt her."
"The fact that she was choking, or more likely convulsing in the first place makes me question whether she was reacting to injuries already sustained earlier in the night-"
Standing up from his chair Alistair impatiently growled, "Your honor!"
Looking at Stacy Judge Smithies said, "Miss Dylan we are in a court of law, your opinions are irrelevant, unless of course you are a medical expert of some kind. Stricken the comment from the record, please continue," said the judge. Sitting back in her large backed black leather chair.
"That is all for now your honor," said Stacy looking distastefully in the direction of Alistair as she walked back to her desk and took her seat.
"Court will convene tomorrow," Announced Judge Smithies as she brought down her hammer concluding the day's proceedings.
Everyone got to their feet and watched as the judge left the room. After she had disappeared through a door at the side, the crowd began to murmur as they left for the day. Victoria sat in the questioning box and waited as two court appointed guards took hold of her, one each side and they began to lead her out of the courtroom.
As Victoria passed where Alistair and Danny were still seated, she looked at Danny pleadingly as he was getting out of his chair to leave, "please Danny...."
As she said it the guards roughly jerked her away, he wasn't even looking at her, but she heard his reply, words that would continue to haunt her, words that she could never forget.
"Get her away from me."
It was at that very moment she understood, she saw it clearly now. Danny wasn't on her side - she had been right all along, nothing would ever be the same again.
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I hope you enjoyed Chapter 1 of BROKEN, please like and leave a comment. I will post more soon.