Riley's pov
I was woken up to someone shaking me.
"Riley wake up. We need to go back to the court room." I heard daddy say.
I was way too tired to go back there. I thought we didn't have to go back until tomorrow.
"No I'm too tired. We can go back tomorrow." I whined refusing to get up.
"I know you're tired but we don't have a choice. We have to go back now sweetheart." Daddy said.
Daddy lifted me up out of the bed and sat me in a chair and mommy came over with my clothes that I had to wear at the court.
"Noooooo. I don't wanna change into those! I wanna stay in comfy clothes!" I shouted which seemed to get daddy's attention again.
"Riley do not raise your voice at mommy." Daddy said sternly as he walked into the bathroom.
I cried as mommy took off my comfy clothes and put on my court clothes. It's not fair, I don't want to go back there and these clothes are not comfy. I cried louder until I was almost at a complete scream.
"Daniel a little help here" mommy said as daddy walked out of the bathroom in his court clothes.
Daddy walked over and put a blue pacifier in my mouth which of course I spit out right away. I'm not a baby how dare he put a pacifier in my mouth.
Daddy picked me up and put the pacifier back I. My mouth holding it there so that I couldn't spit it out. I started hitting up to let me spit it out which somehow ended up in daddy holding my arms together and rocking me back and forth. Soon I felt much more relaxed and snuggled into daddy's chest. I felt daddy put the pacifier back in my mouth but I didn't care anymore, I kinda liked the feeling of it now.
Mommy brushed my hair before we got ready to leave the hotel room.
Daniel's pov
Once I finally got Riley into little space and calmed down we were able to leave the hotel room. Riley hadn't had a complete meltdown like that since that one time with Josh after school. Man I miss Josh, I'm sure Riley does too. Maybe we should try to meet up with him soon so that Riley can see him again.
We got back in the car and headed to the court room. I sat in the back with Riley and worked on getting her out of little space so that by the time we got there she would be ready to face the media reporters again.
"Okay Riley hold on tight." I said grabbing ahold of her hand and keeping her close to me as we walked into the court house.
I had gotten Riley in the habit of always keeping her head down and not answering any of the questions that were asked. It was much easier for her to keep her mouth shut than it was for me. Some of the things these reporters would say were just downright inappropriate and insensitive to ask a 10 year old little girl. Once we got into the court house I took Riley to our lawyers office to see what the plan was.
"Daddy hold me." Riley pulled on my arm as we walked.
"Ri I really need you to be a big girl for me right now, okay? Daddy will hold your hand but he can't pick you up right now." I said.
It's really important to keep Riley out of little space during these moments so that she will be able to remember them. Especially since hopefully this will be a memory of her aunt and uncle going to prison and she won't have to worry about having to go back to them. Hopefully she will get some closer out of this.
Riley continued to pull on my arm and whine about wanting to be held. I've never seen this side of Riley before. She is being super clingy and fussy, which she can get sometimes but not for this long. Then it clicked, she's nervous.
We got into our lawyers office and sat down.
"Ri are you nervous about what's happening right now, or why are you being so fussy?" I asked as we sat in the chairs across from our lawyer.
"I wanna be done here. We've been here a lot and I'm bored." Riley said sighing.
"Sweetie you know that this is hopefully the last time we'll have to be here right? Isn't that exciting?" I said trying to get Riley to think positively about it.
"But what if it's not. What if they take me away from you." Riley said with a small pout.
"Riley they won't take you away from me, the odds of your aunt and uncle getting set free let alone regaining custody of you is very little. I promise once we get outta here I'll hold you whenever you want, but right now I need big girl Riley, okay?" I said kneeling down in front of her making eye contact.
"Okay." Riley said finally smiling a little.
"That's what I like to see" I said sitting back in my chair as our lawyer walked in.
Riley's pov in court room
We walked into the court room and daddy sat next to me and our lawyers sat next to him. Daddy liked to keep me on the far end of the table as far away from my aunt and uncle as possible so that they couldn't see me very well. The judge walked in and we all had to stand up, which I never understood but daddy said we had to so I did. The long line of people who were what daddy called the jury walked into the court room. I turned around and looked at all the people in the room. There was a lot of people in here, more than I realized. I grabbed daddy's hand and faced forward again. Daddy squeezed my hand as we sat back down.
"On the count of child abuse and neglect the jury find the defendants Cathy and James Jones...guilty." The judge said.
I breathed a sigh of relief, I felt as if I could breathe again. For some reason I felt myself start to cry but I'm not sad, so why am I crying?
"Daddy why I'm I crying I'm not sad?" I asked confused.
"It's okay these are happy tears. See I have them too." Daddy said crouching down.
"Hold me now?" I asked wiping my tears.
Daddy picked me up and we walked out of the court room. Daddy held onto me super tight the whole walk to the car which he said he wasn't going to do but I guess he finally gave in. Once we got to the car he held me all the way to the hotel and to our room. I clutched onto him listening to his heart beat. I finally felt safe again.
