Riley's POV
It was one day before the trial and I was so nervous. Not necessarily about the talking part. But seeing my aunt and uncle. I fell like when I see them I'm going to forget what the lawyers are asking me and just completely zone out. I haven't been able to focus on school at all this week. I've been sleeping in mommy and daddy's room the past couple days, but not by my choice. I haven't really been talking to them much I know they are worried about me. I do find comfort in sleeping with them. Daddy cuddles me to sleep every night, he always makes me feel safe.
Daniel's POV
Riley has been really distant this week. I know why, but it still worries me. All I can do is make sure she knows I'm here for her. I had her start sleeping in my wife and I's bed. I make sure she feels loved and protected every night. I make sure she falls asleep in my arms and wakes up in my arms. We are 24hrs away from the trial. Riley has been doing much in school this week, reasonably so. I decided me and her would just take today off and do whatever she wanted to do.
It was around the time I normally wake her up for school but like I said, we were taking today off and who knows how much she will sleep tonight. Riley was a pretty heavy sleeper so I picked her up from the bed and walked out to the living room and continued to cuddle her while I watched tv and finished up my sub plans for the next few days. My wife took the boys to stay at her parents place and we would pick them up after the trail and take off for our trip. My wife is a doctor so money isn't really an issue for us, so we let Riley pick where we would be going, and she picked the Bahamas. We were originally only going to be gone through Sunday put the school and my wife's boss said we could take longer, so now we are going to stay in the Bahamas 9 days from Thursday-Friday.
The trail was being held in a court room that was 2 hours away. This case was starting to get a lot of attention and their was a jury involved. They told us they would be sending a driver to come pick us up and take us to the court room. I'm having my wife drive separately so that we will have a car with all our stuff in and we can just drive from the court room to her parents house, which is just about an hour away, and from there we will drive to our hotel.
I was kinda relieved that they were sending a driver for us, Riley was going to need someone by her side the whole time.
It was close to 9:30 before I felt Riley shifting around.
"Good morning" I said as she opened her eyes looking at me.
"What time is it?" Riley asked laying back down.
"Almost 9:30. You slept a lot longer then I thought you would."
"Wait what about school? Did we cancel or something?"
"No, I decided it would be best for you to get some extra rest before the big day tomorrow." I said rubbing her back.
I couldn't help but notice that she has been looking extremely thin lately, well more thin than normal I should say. She is already so small. When we went to the doctor she was 4'5 and only weighed 50 pounds.
"Are you hungry?" I asked hoping to get some food in her.
"Eh not really." Riley said sighing.
"Come on ri, just eat a little something." I said picked her up as she rested her chin on my shoulder.
I made her some toast and some juice. I sat at the kitchen table with her and watched her eat.
"So, do you want to do anything today?" I asked.
"Can we go to the zoo?" Riley basically jumped out of her chair.
There was a zoo about 50 minutes from our house. We went there once with Josh before he moved away.
"Of course!" I said matching her excitement.
*fast forward to nighttime*
Daniel's POV
I should've known. The lawyers warned me about the press, the cameras, and the questions. They said it would be a small chance. They said since the case was blowing up we might have to face this. But they said the chances were so low since the case was just starting to blow up.
It was to much for Riley. One minute we were fine. The next we were swarmed with the press, the cameras, the questions. How they knew we were there, I don't know.
Riley sobbed in my arms as I tried to cradle her to sleep.
"It's okay. I'm right here. Daddy's got you." I bounced her on my hip as I pasted around the house.
*at the zoo hours before*
We entered the zoo, making sure Riley was holding my hand. The last thing we need is Riley getting lost. Riley wanted to go see the monkeys first so that's where we went.
"Daddy look at that one! It's climbing the tree!" As she pressed her hand against the glass.
She loved monkeys.
"Riley do you want to go get a stuffed animal monkey?" I asked knowing she'd say yes.
"Can we!?" Riley jumped up and down.
I've never seen her this happy before. It was refreshing in a way to see that she was healing from her trauma. After I bought her a monkey we went to look at the gorillas and giraffes. We were in our own little world. Everything was prefect. This was exactly what we needed.
While Riley was feeding the giraffes I noticed some people who had been around us most of the time we were there. At first I thought maybe they were taking pictures but it was clear they were recording us. That's when I made a mistake. I made eye contact with one of the people recording. I quickly grabbed Riley's hand.
"Okay Riley we need to go." I said quickly
"But daddy-"
That's when I looked up and we were surrounded.
"How are you feeling with the trial tomorrow?"
"Have you been taking care of Riley?"
"Have you talked to James and Cathy?"(Riley's aunt and uncle)
"Can we talk to Riley?"
"Riley what happened?"
"Riley did they actually hurt you?"
The questions started getting worse and worse.
"Are you doing this for attention Riley?"
"ENOUGH!" I yelled
Riley was crying as I tried to shield her from the people.
By this time the zoo security had come over and tried pushing the people back. I quickly picked Riley up and tried to distract her from all the people with her monkey. But she was not having it. I quickly put her into little space when we finally got to the car. I locked the car with her still in my lap in the front seat. The police were surrounding our car so the press couldn't get to us.
I have her a pacifier and gave her the baby blanket Kate had given us. But i couldn't get her to stop crying. I moved her to the passenger seat and buckled her in. This only made it worse and she started crying louder.
I had to get home. I quickly pulled out and a police car followed us all the way home.
*back to nighttime*
Riley finally has finally fallen asleep. At was 8pm. She cried for hours after we got home. I laid her on the couch. And called Kate.
"Kate Riley is in the worse state she's ever been in." I said
"Daniel, I know. I saw the videos and pictures. I already contacted our lawyers."
"What do we do, what do I do." I said almost in tears.
"You need to calm down first off. Once you and calm and Riley is calm, you need to explain to her what happened." Kate said.
"It's my fault. I shouldn't have taken her anywhere today. I just thought it would be good for her. For us. This was the first time I felt like she was happy." I said as my voice cracked.
"Daniel, this is not your fault. It is okay. It is actually good that you ran into this know before tomorrow. Because I can guarantee you it will be way worse tomorrow, just getting in and out of the court room. You can use this situation to prepare her for what is going to be like tomorrow." Kate said
"Okay, okay. She's asleep right now. I'll wait to see if she wakes up and I'll explain it to her then. And if she doesn't I can just explain it to her in the morning ." I said as I took a deep breath.
"Good. Let me know how she is doing when she does." Kate said
"Goodnight Daniel, I will see you tomorrow."
"Goodnight Kate. Thank you."
I hung up the phone and walked back into the living room. Riley was sleeping hugging her monkey curled up in a ball.
This was the worst 24hrs before the trail.
