Angel (Damiano David & Victoria De Angelis)

Chapter 40

On Monday, Victoria arrived at Chiara's office at 10 in the morning. They had decided that she would go alone for this meeting to discuss some stuff with Chiara that Damiano wasn't entirely comfortable with sharing yet. "Hey...come right in.", the young woman greeted her. Victoria nodded, nervously following her into the office where she took a seat. She knew this was an important meeting as she would tell Chiara about Damiano's triggers and all that, yet she couldn't help but ask herself if this was really the right decision. Not in the sense that she questioned whether or not the trial was the right decision...it was more the feeling that this wasn't really her story to tell. She didn't feel entirely comfortable with sharing Damiano's private feelings. But she knew she had to do it...because he couldn't.

"Water? Or coffee maybe?", the young lawyer asked her, which snapped her out of her thoughts. She looked at the blonde woman a bit perplexed, then composed herself and nodded:" Oh...yeah, a coffee would be nice." Chiara flashed her a smile and went over to the coffee machine. "So, Victoria. Why don't you start by telling me what I should be aware of? I want to avoid triggers as much as possible during this whole trial. Of course, that won't always work, but for as long as I can, I want to make sure that he is going to do okay." Victoria nodded, taking the cup of coffee that was handed to her:" Well...it's not really that easy to be honest. It really depends on the day most of the time. Sometimes, even I don't know what's going to trigger him or how severe his reaction to it will be. Most of all, I think the word 'rape' itself is what I'd consider his most consistent trigger. I mean that word almost always evokes a reaction. That, and when people call him a liar. Those two things are certain to trigger him in some way or another. I can't give you any other triggers for sure. On some days almost everything can set him off, on other days he doesn't seem to care about anything at all." Chiara noted that down and nodded:" Alright. That's rather typical...at least that's how it was with previous cases I've had. What I need from you is that you stay focused and by his side through all of this. I need your support to keep him calm during the trial and the weeks leading up to it. I'm not a specialist...no doctor or psychiatrist, and I don't know Damiano like you do. That's why I need to be able to rely on you. Can I count on you, Victoria?" She let that sink in for a moment. She had already expected this, yet the realization of how big this whole thing had actually gotten hit her like a brick. And once more, she realized that she had no idea what she had gotten herself into. Everybody was relying on her to know the answers to things she didn't have the answer for. She had gotten to know Damiano pretty well those past months, but she only acted on intuition most of the time. She had no professional insight...she had no idea what was actually right and what wasn't. Whenever she had succeeded in getting him out of this deep dark hole, it had been nothing but dumb luck. And now she was supposed to assist lawyers and guide Damiano through the trial. And all of that at 21 years old.

Despite all of that, she slowly nodded:" Yeah. Of course, you can count on me. Whatever you need...whatever he needs, I'll be there." Because of course, she was. No matter how hard it was for her, she knew that it was way harder for Damiano. And she knew that after all of this, she had the responsibility to take care of him...to guide him. And it wasn't like she didn't want that. She wanted to help him, and she wanted to be there for him through all of it. But it was hard to know what to do...what was right. What life experience did a 21-year-old have? Practically none. But she felt like she had aged 10 years in the past 5 months since finding out about Damiano's secrets. And so, she took it like an adult. Even if it was hard.