Muse [18+] • REVISING

23 | Waiting Game

V E R A

━━━━━━━━━━

A Month Later

"The jury finds the defendant guilty on all charges. Lucas Ramirez, you are hereby sentenced to twenty to life without parole. Court adjourned."

The words I had been waiting to hear for the past month, spilled from the other end of the phone. After the arraignment, Luke had been expedited back to California for sentencing so the closest I was going to get to that courtroom was over the phone with Eli.

"Holy shit, they did it. They convicted him," Eli spoke in disbelief.

"I-I can't believe this is happening." My words came out as a whisper. "It's really over?"

"Yes, it's over, V." Eli confirmed.

"Say it again," I asked, still in shock.

"Vera, he's out of your life for good," He reassured, immediately triggering the tears that had been threatening to spill from my eyes.

Covering my mouth with my hand to try and stop myself from making noise, more tears fell.

For the past month and a half, my days had been spent constantly feeling like I had to watch my back, afraid that Luke would somehow show up and finish what he started. Restless evenings and exhausted mornings—thirty days and counting, I was going through an endless cycle of paranoia.

Standing up from the couch, I paced back and forth in the living room as I became overwhelmed by everything I had been feeling.

Hearing the front door unlock, I peeked through one of the window curtains and saw a black car, belonging to Damien's driver, make its way around the half roundabout and down the long driveway.

Due to the trial landing on a workday, Damien insisted that I stay home and wait for the verdict to be released. While Paris was a whole ten hours ahead of California, he ordered that I get some rest beforehand to kill time.

"Hey, Eli? I have to go right now. Talk later?" I quickly asked.

"Okay, sounds good. Love you,"

"Oh and thank you," I spoke into the phone. "For sticking with me, Eli. I couldn't have gotten through all of this without you,"

Although he did a good job of hiding it, I knew having to revisit this whole situation hadn't been the easiest for him. Before everything went down, he and Eli had been the closest of friends. More than that, as Eli was completely estranged from his parents, he considered Luke the only family he had. He didn't have to say it but I knew today was difficult for him to endure.

"That's what you and I do, Vera. We show up for each other," He reassured, before saying goodbye.

After ending the call, I placed my phone onto the coffee table and quickly turned around as I heard the front door shut.

"Hey, how'd everything go?" He asked, placing his keys in a glass tray.

As much as I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs and tell him that Luke was finally out of my life, I completely froze as the situation hadn't yet settled in for me. It all still felt surreal.

"Damien..." I was struggling to find the words as my eyes started to water again.

"Hey, what's wrong?" He asked, walking towards me.

Pulling my body into his, he wrapped one arm around my waist while tilting my chin up with the other. He wiped away the drops from my cheeks as they continued to fall.