Blacken by Alandra Rankin (i love reading books txt) 📕

just be results of action. I do not know what I did to deserve someone like you, but you were sent to me, supposed to come to me. All I can do is thank the stars above.”

He led her in for a kiss they shared. Rhulle always was filled with beautiful words, he sung her praise when all she had done was get to know him, falling in love a sequential event to the connection they shared. He explained the stars and sky and colours unseen the same way he spoke of her, she never felt such love. She had never been able to reciprocate in verbatim until she felt the true love he expressed.

Avie loved him with every fiber of her being, and now she was able to begin a life with Rhulle.

She also took a moment to silently thank the stars.

After spending a few days with Rhulle, she returned in the evening to find Detective Arcand and Detective Cooper standing at her door. Seeing her coming to meet them at the residence, they smiled and called out a friendly greeting.

“Good evening, Miss. Conrad, forgive the lateness of the hour, but we have something important for you,” Det. Arcand handed her the slip of paper, outlining her appearance in court and when to attend.

Her eyes flicked over the paper, reading the capitalized and bolded words, taking in the information presented for her there. It was straightforward and made perfect sense on what she was supposed to do, but Avie was in the dark about proceeding in a courtroom when she had been a victim.

“It’s alright, the night is still young... I, umm, wow. I didn’t realize the date would be so soon. I don’t know what I’m really supposed to do.”

“Just bring that with you, and any copies if you choose to make them. Dress nicely, you will have a victim’s management personnel assigned to you before your first appearance. If you are uncomfortable being in the same room as the accused, make sure to bring that up with them and they can make arrangements before you testify,” Det. Cooper said with a calm grace, as if recited hundreds of times.

It reassured her, she didn’t mind being in the same room with Owen, that wasn’t the problem. She was, however, worried she couldn’t eloquently express her words in a way that made sense to the judge and jury.

“Right, thank you, detective. Anything else I should know?”

“Don’t communicate any details with anyone until the trial has ended, you could be viewed as coming in contempt of court,” the shorter of the pair spoke curtly, Avie imagined that must have happened quite a few times if he needed to drive the obvious point home.

“Of course. This all helps so much; I appreciate the time.”

“Ma’am,” Cooper tipped his hat, following his partner as they left the apartment’s hallway.

The redhead sat on the hard, metallic chair, facing the ballistic glass with the empty seat on the other side.

Calmly, she waited, finding the security guard’s stare, smiling awkwardly to him. The bright lights in the bleak room turned the atmosphere green with the hue it presented. It mimicked Avie’s twisted stomach, full of nerves and making her queasy with trepidation.

She was here just for one purpose: to be sure. Just to be sure that Owen was no longer Owen, that she no longer needed to harbour intense guilt over his actions that did not come from the same person met those few months ago. Avie had to be sure.

The man she waited for dropped into his own seat across her, dark eyes filled with suppressed rage while he demanded all of her attention. Her eyes flicked over to the two-way phone, picking it up and awaiting him to mimic the action.

He looked, to put it quite simply, terrible. His usual dishevelled appearance increased tenfold, Owen appeared to have lost weight despite his already small size, it may have been the lighting, but his skin looked colourless, gaunt, drowned out by dark shadows swallowing his once bright blue stare.

Picking up his own phone with a huff, his shackled hands clinked on the countertop through the receiver.

“Why are you here?” Owen’s voice was rough, short and ragged. He truly was a shell of his former self in this instance.

“Court date is set for December fourth, I haven’t seen you since the night you shot me, I figured you might have some remorse for your actions. I wanted to know why you did it.”

“You’ll get to hear all about everything in court, I’m sure. Are you even allowed to be here?”

“It’s highly ill advised, but I was hoping something of the real you still remained, that you may be in there, somewhere. You were once my friend, after all.”

He scoffed, rolling his eyes, “That was over the moment you chose him over me. Are you going to tell them about your little secret? Hmm? About how I was the only one brave enough to step up and do something? First you, then it.”

“You left something in my apartment after you shot me, I don’t think you would have made it very far with whatever you wanted to do. Besides, I never chose anyone over the other.”

He breathed heavily, “Liar.”

Avie was not sure what he meant, exactly. Owen in this state was a different person with different thought processes and she couldn’t read what he was thinking. She opened her mouth and began asking to clarify.

“I brought you to him with the team we built! You should be dead! He took everyone else, but not you. Why not you? Because you loved him? I could tell you loved me first. He stole you away, he deserves to be killed just for that. You can’t protect him, Avie. You can’t protect your disgusting relationship; everyone will hear about him. Everyone will know soon enough.”

He still clung onto the concept that he was able to have possession over her, that she was brainwashed into accepting Rhulle as her