Chapter Two Hundred and Forty Six - Testifying

We awaited the prosecutor to continue his cross-examination but he remained silent and continued ruffling through the documents on the desk.

"Mr. Jackson," Judge Roberts calls and he slowly lifts his head to acknowledge the judge. "Do you have anymore questions for the witness?" Judge Roberts asks.

Mr. Jackson turn to stare at me then nod at the Judge, "uh, yes sir," he responds, "there are a few more questions for the witness." He confirms.

The prosecutor looks at me with so much animosity. What's his problem with me?

"Mrs. Knights," the prosecutor starts again, "you claim you were told your parents died in a car crash?" He asks and I nod my response.

"Words please," Judge Roberts instructed me.

Smiling at the Judge. "Sorry," I said politely before turning to the prosecutor.

"Yes sir," I responded to his question, "When I was in my early teens I started having nightmares about a lady pushing another lady down a flight of stairs while a little girl stood screaming as the woman rolled passed her, down the stairs." I elaborated, shocking the prosecutor even more.

Lifting my eyebrows, "please answer the question ask," the prosecutor scolds me and again I nodded but quickly remembered Judge Roberts instruction.

"Yes sir," I responded politely.

"So are you saying, you forgot about the accident concerning your mother?" The prosecutor asks and I immediately made eye contact with Adian because I was nervous and afraid. I stared at my daddy, as I wonder how to explain that I forgot him or his last words to me.

"I didn't forget right away but no one would listen to me and then they left me with a strange lady who would only feed me and dress me and take me to school." Frowning as I remember my first days with Nanny Pierce and the tantrums when I won't listen to her as I cried for my mummy and my daddy.

"I would cry and scream for mummy and daddy but she would only ignore me and just attend to my physical needs." I added.

Wiping the few drops of tears that lingered on my lashes as I remember my first days with Nanny Pierce.

"She was never mean to me but one day she came to retrieve me from school and took me for ice cream, reminding me that it was my sixth birthday." I informed both the prosecutor and the judge. "Nanny Pierce, used that opportunity to tell me I should stop crying and waiting for my parents who were not coming back." I remember that day vividly when I sat making a mess with chocolate ice cream leaking down my chin and fingers and unto the table we sat at.

"Nanny Pierce said, Hailey you're a big girl now and I have to tell you the truth," I shared. "Your mummy and your daddy are not coming back," the tears I tried holding back seeping through and looking down, I continued to tell the prosecutor what happened on my sixth birthday.

"They died in a car crash and they wouldn't want you to be sad all the time. They would want you to be happy and enjoy your birthday," I remember her telling me.

I continued as the memories of my past came flooding in.

When I didn't hear another question from the prosecutor who disliked me for some unknown reason, I lifted my eyes to see him staring silently at me.

With a quick glance at the judge, the prosecutor looked down at his documents once again. "Mrs. Knights, when did you remember your parents," pausing with his head bent, the prosecutor looks at me from lowered lashes and change the way he word his question. "When did you remember your father was alive?" He asks, his voice soft but his gaze intimidating.

Smiling, I finally met my daddy's sad smile, "when my husband took me to visit him at the prison." Nodding, I admitted, wishing this cross-examination was already over but still I need to make sure the judge knows that my daddy didn't push mummy down the stairs.

Frowning, the prosecutor shook his head, "so, just like that your husband knew your father was alive and where he was, uh living?" The prosecutor ask, disbelief evident in his tone and his eyes.

Opening my handbag, I pulled out some of my files from the therapist and stretched it out to the Judge.

My lips quivering, "here, these are a few of the files that will tell you what happened when I finally started remembering seeing mummy die and it was not in a car crash. In these files I also remember my daddy was there, trying to help mummy." Getting the Judge's undivided attention, "when I remembered my parents, I told Nanny Pierce who together with Mrs. Ameila Knights took me for therapy and instead of helping me understand my dreams, they stuffed me with pills so that I would be calm and kept threatening to put me in a mental institute unless I remain quiet and stopped discussing my nightmares." I tried to quickly make the judge understand that I was helpless before but now because I've got Adian.

Judge Roberts reached out and too the three files I stretched out to him, without uttering a word, he opened the first file and started reading. After just about five minutes he close the file to address me.

"Mrs. Knights, you may step down." Judge Roberts politely instructs me.

Nodding, I shut my handbag but took my time down the two stairs down the stand, already regretting wearing a five inch heel.

"Thank you," I turned to the judge before taking my seat beside Adian, without looking around the room.

"Mr. Gussippie," the Judge called daddy's lawyer. "I would run through these files and if there are anymore, please have your client's daughter deliver it to my office by three thirty this afternoon, so that I can render my verdict on Friday.