Ethan continued, his skulking voice wanting to rat him out because of the fear it portrayed. He was trying as hard as he could to be brave in telling the lies. "I could decipher that she was in pain and wasn't really up for anything. She was fidgeting a lot because of the pain and I was afraid to hurt her even more. She just wanted it to go on though... and um, I continued because I loved her. If she wanted her first experience to be this way, then I wouldn't get in her way."
He stopped talking and toured his eyes around the courtroom. Some faces were confused whilst others were still were just fed up with his lies. Lynn and her husband, Dean Stenfield, were the ones on top of his list of the people that hated him, after Elena's of course. He could imagine the anger they had towards him and he almost collapsed on himself. A mother's love never washes away from her children no matter how old they grow. A father's pride in fighting for and protecting his family as it is required by him and society was all that Dean wanted. They wanted justice for their girl and from where he was standing, they weren't going to let him walk away. He asked for a bottle of water and gulped the drink in large swallows. Lying is thirsty work.
"And can you tell us what happened after that? If there's something more you would like to add." Paul talked to Ethan seeming confident in him. It was as if they had rehearsed the whole thing. Which questions to answer how, at what time to speak what, and when to keep quiet.
"Oh yeah. So later on I think it was about an hour later, she... um... told me that she wanted us to try the rope thing, the way they do in Fifty Shades of Grey? She wanted me to tie her up and have sex w-"
"Liar!" Elena shouted as she rose from her seat, her voice louder his time, throwing her purse at him. Everyone looked at her with eyebrows furrowed in confusion over her outburst of reactions as she had hijacked the show yet again.
"Elena sit down!" Lynn hissed at her as she brought her back to sit. Elena removed her hands from her mother's grasp and yelped.
"Let me go!" She shrieked. The whole court might have been taking this as a normal r*pe case but to her, it was more. This was personal!
"You liar!" She cried out, tears stroking her cheeks.
"Order! Ord..." Judge Freeman began to talk before Mrs. Jenna raised her palm to him slightly signaling him to keep quiet and let the lady talk. The judge exchanged looks with her before he turned to Paul. Paul shifted his attention to the vice president who appeared angry with all the fuss that was going on.
"Ethan, please..." Elena cried out to him as she approached the witness stand. The lies from him were just too much for her to bear. "Tell them the truth. Why are you doing this?" She asked him, her voice sounding heavy.
Ethan kept quiet, looking at the jury of his peers. He could see her approaching on his right by the corner of his eye.
"Look at me." She cried out. "Ethan look at me!"
Ethan assumed her yet again as she neared him in the stand. His heart started racing again, fear and guilt clouding his mind ever so slightly by every passing second. Some police present in the court went over to try to calm the situation down but were stopped mid-act by Mrs. Jenna and Judge Freeman.
"Let the young lady speak, please." Mrs. Jenna called out to the whole courtroom. "Just this once..."
The whole courtroom's attention shifted back to Elena who was next to the witness stand. Ethan was looking away, afraid to face her, eye to eye.
"Look at me, Ethan. It hurts so bad!" He still ignored her. "If what you're saying is true then look at me straight in my eyes and tell me that what you did was consensual sex and not r*pe. Tell me that I enjoyed what you did to me!" Elena finished, whimpering.
After a few seconds of debating on whether he wanted to answer that question, Ethan finally turned to Elena. And he saw what he had made of her and almost burst out crying. She looked hurt and betrayed. He could render the humiliation that he was putting her through, shaming her altogether making her look like a fool in front of the whole court. Tears meandered down her face in a never-ending frenzy. She didn't want to wipe them off. Let him see! Let them all see! Let the world see how an innocent girl was hurt! And the perpetrator wouldn't man up to accept his mistakes.
He wanted to touch her face, to feel her warmth, and tell her how sorry he was. He wanted to ask for her forgiveness one more time, the one that she hadn't given him despite him begging her to accord him with. He wanted to scream of how scared he was to go to prison; of how he was afraid of a life behind bars, away from his family, and mostly away from her. He hoped that his eyes would talk to her, and confess to the whole room that he was guilty as his mouth could not find the strength to do so. If she wanted him to go away he would do it, if that would make her happy. He wanted to see her happy... and not hurting. Just as she was two weeks ago when they danced in circles to the romantic songs in the lovely basement.
"We had sex at your consent." Ethan finally answered her firmly, eyes locked at each other.
Elena cried out in a loud voice, letting the whole room know how hurt she was. "How can you?" She roared, turning to the court. "How can you all sit here and listen to his lies!"
"It's a trial dear, we all have equal chances to defend ourselves here." Judge Freeman spoke to her, still in a calm coarse voice.
"What he's saying is nothing but complete fucking lies!" She cried out to the judge. "None of this happened. He raped me!"
"You're not the first woman to be in court for such a case Elena! Sit down!" Ethan told her.
She turned to him crying, sucking in air to shock. "Why? Why? Why are you doing this?"
He kept silent.
"Answer me!" She roared at him sounding so desperate. "Stop lying and tell everyone the fucking truth!"
"Umm... Miss," Judge Freeman called out to her, "If you don't stop using that 'F' word, if you don't get back to your seat, if you won't stop treating this courtroom like it's some bar... and instead start treating it with respect I will have you thrown out of this courtroom!" Judge Freeman growled at her.
"Respect? Respect?" She knitted her brows wiping off the tears with her palms. "How can you allow him to speak such lies embedded with cruel statements? He raped me! How's that for respect?!"
"You will get your chance to speak again but this is his turn Miss El-"
"Fuck you, your honor!" Elena roared.