“No,” Zoey answered. “No, I didn’t do anything to harm anyone. Myself or any child.”
Damion wanted to yell and scream at the woman. Instead, he sat there and waited for his chance to talk. To defend his friend.
“Are you willing to testify to these facts?” Romero asked.
“Yes.” Zoey looked at the lawyer.
“My client would like to provide you with proof of her situation.” The lawyer slipped a USB drive across the table. “As well as a witness.” He motioned to Damion.
“What is this?” Romero asked, holding up the drive.
“Security camera footage,” the lawyer answered.
Romero shifted, her eyes narrowing. She set the USB drive down on the table, as if offended she had been handed it. After a moment of silence, Romero shifted in her seat, then straightened her shoulders and placed the USB drive in her computer.
Damion knew what was on it. After all, he was the one who had suggested they look at the footage to see if they caught everything that had happened. They had turned copies of the video over to the police as evidence when Lisa accused them. It only seemed right that the rest of the video would be proof that Zoey had done nothing to warrant this questioning.
The entire incident with Lisa Tribberton was center screen. Though you could barely make out what was said on the sailboat, when they moved to the dock, every word was crystal clear.
So was the moment Zoey slumped against him. When he lifted her up, the blood dripping down her legs. Him yelling to call 911 and disappearing off screen. They had spliced together video of him running through the camp. Brett pulling his car up, him gently putting Zoey in the back. Lea climbing in after them, and Dylan jumping into the front seat.
“From there”—Lea shoved her folder forward towards Romero— “you can read what happened in my official medical report. This is all the medical evidence you need right here.”
The woman looked up and Damion knew they had won. What would make a person be so full of hate?
“I think this is enough to close this case.” Detective Hobbylark stood up. “Thank you for your time. I’m very sorry for your loss.” He held out his hand towards Zoey, who ignored it.
“I want to say something. On the record.” Zoey narrowed her eyes at the other woman. “My heart was broken when two doctors I trust with my life and the life of everyone I love informed me that my pregnancy was not viable, according to several scans. What was growing inside me had no heartbeat. It had no chance of survival. I was lucky, having proof that backed up my story. How many women will be so lucky?” she asked. “How many will wake in the middle of the night, alone or next to their mates, covered in blood, knowing that the baby that they loved, the hope that they had for the future, is gone? Their physical and emotional pain won’t be a drop in a sea compared to what you or people like you will put them through. What will you do, detective Romero, if the unthinkable happens to you? Will you be lucky enough to have people like these to stand behind you?” Zoey motioned to the people that surrounded her. To Damion. “Caring people who will back up your story that you didn’t willingly or knowingly do anything to harm something no bigger than a bean. Something that, even though it’s small, you loved more than your next breath. Yet, somehow, its rights were more important than your own. Using it as a reason, your name and your life are dragged through the mud.” Zoey slowly stood up. “Think about that the next time you sit in that chair and talk to a woman who has just gone through the unthinkable.”
With that, Zoey turned and left the room with the rest of them following behind.
He wanted to shout and cheer that they had won the battle. However, the moment he stepped outside into the heat of the day, he saw Zoey and Dylan hold onto one another. Then it hit him that they were still grieving the—as she had put it—unthinkable. It had still happened to them. In the past week, Zoey had not only had to suffer through something so physically traumatic—he’d watched her almost bleed out in his arms—she’d also lost something she had already grown to love. And then she’d had to stand up for her business, her own name, and her family.
How was it that a woman could be attacked from all sides and still hold on? How could she still stand up straight with all that pressure on her shoulders?
He walked over and, without thinking, wrapped his arms around the couple. He felt Lea come up and do the same. The four of them stood on the steps of the police station in the growing heat of the day and just held on to one another.
He wasn’t scheduled to work that day because he was closing on his land around three o’clock, but he still showed up just before lunchtime. Jules agreed to take lunch with him, and he’d arranged for them to have lunch out on the water.
Instead of taking theWind Chaser, he pulled the biggest rowboat they had onto the water. He put two to-go lunches in a basket and waited for Jules to arrive.
“What’s this?” she asked with a smile.
“A celebration of sorts, if you can call it that.” He shrugged.
“I heard. We all did.” Her smile slipped a little as he helped her into the boat.
“Yeah, and yet I feel just as angry as I felt this morning,” he admitted as he kicked off from the dock.
“Most of us do.” She nodded in agreement as she leaned back on the pillows he’d tossed in the boat for comfort.
“How’s Zoey doing?” he asked her.
“Dylan and the rest of them convinced her to go home. She’s spending time with Paige and Dylan for the remainder of the week,” Jules said with a sigh. “I can’t believe she tried to work today.”
“I can. It helps keep her mind busy. Off her pain.” They grew silent for a while. “You should have been there and seen Zoey. It was like one of those scenes in a movie, near the end when the character makes the speech, the kind that gives everyone in the audience goose bumps.” He shook his head. “If I didn’t already know she was amazing…” He thought back to how she’d stood up for herself. For other women who might come after her.
“All of them are strong. To think that they created all this…” She motioned to the grounds beyond the calm waters.