Lightning (girlxgirl)

Chapter 23

We left late Friday night for New York. The flight to New York was quiet and quick, just over 2 hours to get there and another half an hour to get to our penthouse in the heart of Manhattan. We have a house in the Hamptons but decided to stay in the city because it was closer to the courthouse.

The last time I was in the penthouse was not a good moment in my life. When we got to the house I dropped my bag by the entrance and just looked around. This place looked a lot different now but I could remember all of the bad memories this place holds.

"After this is over I don't want to come back here." I said out loud. My parents both looked at me and nodded before they moved more into the penthouse. Rylie pushed her nose into my leg and I refocused on my dog.

I barely slept at all the first night here. I refused to go into my bedroom. I spent my night parked on the very uncomfortable couch. I deemed that this couch is more for show then for actually sitting on it.

Saturday was spent meeting with lawyers trying to figure out what was going on and why I needed to be here to go before the judge. My team of lawyers went over strategies all day long. After 4pm I had enough and decided to take a walk in the city. Rylie was ready by the door but I just wanted some space from everybody so I left her at home.

The city was starting to come alive on this chilly October night. I somehow made it to the heart of Time Square and just watched people walk by for a while. As the sun started to really set I thought it would be a good idea to head back home. After a stop at my favorite pizza place I got home a little while later.

With a lot of help from my mother I went back into my old room. We spent the most of Sunday cleaning out a lot of my old things. I found a lot of drugs in my bathroom though. I'm surprised that nobody else has been in here since myself two years ago.

Mom got rid of the drugs that I had stocked up on while I went through a lot of my old clothes and pictures. Almost all of the clothes I packed into bags to be given to charity. I had no use for them. They just reminded me of my past and I wanted nothing to do with them. All of the old pictures was of my old friends from my private school here in New York. A solid 98% of those pictures ended up in the garbage.

When I felt content about what was left in the room I left and crawled into one of the guest rooms beds and slept. My dad woke me up a while later for some dinner. After dinner I went back to the guest room and showered before crawling back into bed. Sleep came easier for me tonight.

Monday morning rolled around and I just wanted to go back home to South Carolina. Until now I didn't think about the possibility that this could be bad news, that I could be going to jail again. That thought started to weigh heavily on me as I got dressed in my dress pants and blazer.

The ride to the court house was quiet. Both of my parents had their eyes locked on their phones while I spent most of my time looking out of the window. When we got to the court house Richard, the head lawyer of my legal team met us as soon as we got out of cars.

"We are going to chambers, the plaintiffs' attorney is not here, just myself and Carmen." Richard informed us as we walked up the steps and into the courthouse.

After going through security Richard and I made our way up to the judges' chambers and waited outside. We weren't waiting long, about five minutes later Judge Warren walks out of his chambers.

"Carmen, please come in and have a seat. Mr. Mason you can hang onto this and wait out here, I would like to speak with Ms. Vera in private." Judge Warren said and handed my lawyer a closed envelope.