GLORY AND GORE! ( DEFENDING JACOB )

𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

❝ 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑵𝑰𝑮𝑯𝑻 𝒀𝑶𝑼 𝑫𝑨𝑵𝑪𝑬𝑫 𝑳𝑰𝑲𝑬 𝒀𝑶𝑼 𝑲𝑵𝑬𝑾 ❞

❝ 𝑶𝑼𝑹 𝑳𝑰𝑽𝑬𝑺 𝑾𝑶𝑼𝑳𝑫 𝑵𝑬𝑽𝑬𝑹 𝑩𝑬 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑺𝑨𝑴𝑬 ❞

. . .

A SOFT KNOCK WAS HEARD ON HER BEDROOM DOOR.

"come in!" maddie yelled, closing her laptop and turning in her chair. adrian peeked in, keeping his hand on the door. it was now only a week from the trial that would determine if maddie and jacob were guilty or not, which has caused adrian to be even more present in his sisters life. he was scared that he would never be able to see his sister free from jail ever again, but he wouldn't voice that to maddie. 

"hey, mads. someone is here to see you," adrian said, opening the door all the way. from the hallway, in walked natalia, dressed in a plaid skirt and white sweater. madeline hasn't spoken to natalia in months, and now here her best friend was, a week before her trial.

nevertheless, maddie stood up and ran towards her friend, wrapping her arms around the girls neck. natalia hugged her back, a smile forming on her face. madeline didn't know how much she actually missed natalia. nat reminded her of when things were normal. when they would walk in the hallways at school and talk about every little thing, or when they would go get coffee after school and do their homework. oh, how much madeline longed for those days. 

she kept thinking that she had taken all of her days before being arrested for granted. every single day that she spent staying inside by herself made her angry. if only she had known what would happen, if only she could go back and live her life a little harder. 

madeline pulled away, a smile on her face matching natalia's. "nat! it's been so long, i thought you were shunning me too." 

natalia nodded her head slowly, her smile faltering for a moment. "my parent's didn't want me talking to you, or jacob. they were crazy about it, they took my phone from me before you were arrested and sent it over to the police. maddie, im so sorry that they saw the life 360 app on my phone. i should've never made you download the stupid thing anyways."

"nat, it's okay. you couldn't have known all of this would happen," she stated, walking back into her room. adrian sat on her bed, looking over some of the schoolwork that madeline had been doing. "scootch over dork," she muttered, sitting down next to him. "so . . . why are you here nat? this is so unexpected, you should've texted me." she laughed. 

natalia glanced at adrian, a grin on her face. "actually im here with him. we're going for ice cream." 

madeline was shocked. but she wasn't one to dictate the choices that either of them made. and plus, it would be cute. natalia would be there for adrian if madeline had to leave, it was good this way. she laughed, "that's great! you two, have fun."

soon enough, she was left alone again in her room. she got tired of her homework and instead walked downstairs to the kitchen, where her mom and dad were talking to each other idly at the kitchen counter. the blonde sat down at the counter, grabbing an apple from the wooden bowl in the center. biting into it, madeline looked at her parents, who were glancing back and forth between themselves and to her. she raised an eyebrow. "what's up?"

they looked at each other one last time before shaking their heads. "nothing, we were just about to get you. joanna is coming over to tell us about what happened with ben's cellphone today. her and andy went to go see if they found anything on it worth putting against your allegations."

madeline nodded, hearing a knock on their front door. her mother went to go let the lawyer in, leading the woman to the seat right next to madeline. 

"hey madeline, nice to see you again," klein greeted. 

"hello," maddie said quietly, glancing at her parents to start the conversation that they needed to have. 

"sadly, we didn't find anything on the phone worth using. just a few text messages here and there that confirm ben and madeline seeing each other that night, along with some pictures of her that she already stated he took. nothing for jacob's case either," joanna stated, shrugging her shoulders. meredith and david sighed in defeat, her mother taking a rather big swig of wine. 

"so, we're nowhere again," meredith said. "isn't that right?"

"well, no," joanna answered. she put a hand on maddie's shoulder and gave it a good squeeze. it was comforting to the blonde. "we still have lots that we can use in the trial. don't get too worked up over this. it was great that andy found out about the phone in the first place, since the commonwealth was trying to keep this piece of evidence from us. that we can use in court."

all three nodded. joanna turned to look at madeline, "are you and jacob getting along just fine? the trial is very soon. it's vital that you two keep a connected front."

madeline gave the older woman a smile. "yeah, we're getting along just fine."

"that's good. i understand that you two, meredith and david, you have a meeting with the psychologist later this week?"

her parents nodded together. "yes, the 17th." jacob's birthday. then there would be the trial, the day that they have all been dreading since their convictions.

if only all of them knew that the 17th would be the last normal day of their lives forever, as a family, as friends, as people in this community. but then again, no one can tell the future. no one knows the real truth, except for two people, who's identities will be revealed . . . all in good time. 

༻✦༺

authors note : okay okay OKAY i know this was super short and I kinda left y'all on a little bit of a cliffhanger. but i have a really long ass chapter for you guys following this one that i'm still working on rn. it's literally like 2.5k words so far bc things are only going to get WILDER from here. stay tuned! i will either get the next one up tmr or the day after!