Page 36 of Believing in You

“It’s no wonder you never want to talk to her at work. I don’t blame you.”

“Actually, that’s not even the reason I cut ties with her. She did something else that I can’t forget or forgive. I’ll tell you about it but let me keep going with this part of the story.”

“Okay.”

“For days after I left her house, I took my frustrations out on a punching bag at the gym. I knew I shouldn’t have been surprised at how things turned out. That’s how it always was when it came to Geoffrey and my mother. He had always been her golden child. Still, I’d been devastated.”

He’d been more than devastated. He’d been furious, and those feelings from all those years ago came rushing back. His pulse pounded and his chest heaved despite him trying to keep himself together.

He scrubbed his hands down his face, determined to keep talking, but it was hard. It was hard to tell anyone about one of the most humiliating days in his life.

Nyla glanced up at him. “Harrison?”

“Umm…sorry. I umm… A few days after all that happened, the cops showed up at my job. Didn’t give a damn who was around when they told me I was under arrest for the murder of Mildred Robinson.”

Nyla tried not to react, but she was sure her face showed her anger and her shock. Weeks ago, when he’d mentioned going to prison for a murder he hadn’t committed, she hadn’t known what to expect. But this? This was some next level dysfunctional family soap opera shit that you see on TV. No way was this his life.

Her heart broke for Harrison, for all that he’d endured. He must’ve been terrified. Having your freedom snatched away in the blink of an eye and being tossed in jail was beyond scary.

Questions whirled through her mind, but she wasn’t sure what to ask first. Instead, she remained quiet, barely, and hoped he’d keep talking.

“The neighbor, Miss Robinson, was found beaten to death in her backyard. She had also been robbed. According to them, she had just returned from grocery shopping when she’d been attacked. The bags of food were scattered around her.”

“Surely the cops didn’t think you did this.”

“They did. When they took me to the station for questioning, they showed me a grainy video of me talking to Miss Robinson at her front door. I remember that day because her packages had been delivered to my mother’s house, and I dropped them off. I was over there a few times. Shoveling snow, picking up baked goods that she’d made for us, and I even moved a bookshelf to her basement. I had also replaced a storm window at the back of her house.

“So yeah, I had been there often. I’m not sure if cameras caught each of those visits, but the detective showed me a video of a guy running out of the backyard. They also had turned part of the video into photos, trying to capture the man’s…ormy brother’s face. Nyla, when I was watching that video, if I didn’t know it wasn’t me, I would’ve thought it was. Same build, coat, boots, everything, but neither video nor photos showed the man’s face.”

“At any time, did you think it was your brother?”

“No.Not at all.It hadn’t crossed my mind. Geoffrey was a lot of things, but Ineverthought he was capable of murder. All I knew was that I hadn’t killed that woman.”

Nyla was numb. It was bad enough knowing that someone would harm an elderly woman, but to know that someone was Harrison’s brother? She shook her head, still processing his story. It was no wonder he’d been standoffish when they’d met. Or that Jamie had said Harrison had trust issues. This type of experience would change anyone.

Harrison continued. At the time of the murder, he’d been home. Unfortunately, no one could vouch for his whereabouts. Some of his mother’s neighbors told the cops that the guy in the photos looked like him. They remembered his coat. They had also seen him talking to Miss Robinson almost every day.

More tears pricked Nyla’s eyes as he told her about all the evidence they’d collected against him. Evidence that made it look like he’d been the murderer. They had searched his house and destroyed some of the renovations that had been done. All the while Harrison had maintained his innocence.

They’d found blood on the front of his coat that matched the victim. They hadn’t believed him when he told them it wasn’t what they thought. Days before her death, Miss Robinson had accidentally touched his coat before realizing she had cut her finger after chopping vegetables. Nobody believed him.

His boots were also evidence. They’d had the same tread as a boot print found in the backyard. It also hadn’t helped Harrison’s case that his knuckles had been bruised from all theboxing he’d done before his arrest. They claimed it was from beating up Miss Robinson.

“I was mentally and emotionally lost. Veronica had hired a lawyer for me, someone her family knew,” Harrison said of his ex-fiancée. “At the time, I couldn’t remember if the guy ever asked me if I had killed the woman. I didn’t even know if the man who was supposed to be representing me,defendingme, believed that I was innocent.

“Those first few months, I think I was in a daze. So much I still don’t remember, especially about the trial. My therapist said I might’ve blocked it out. I don’t know. There’d been so much that had happened that I didn’t have the mental ability to deal with it.”

“My God,” Nyla whispered.

Harrison rubbed a hand over his mouth, and Nyla didn’t miss the tears in his eyes. They didn’t fall, but they were there.

“The wheels of justice turn so slow, and not getting bail kept me behind bars well before my trial. Then after hearing the evidence, the jury found me guilty. They tossed my ass in prison and didn’t give a damn that I maintained I was innocent.”

Nyla feverishly swiped at her tears. She wanted to say something, but she feared if she did, she’d burst out crying. Instead, she wrapped her arms around Harrison’s waist and held on tightly.

“If it hadn’t been for Royce, I don’t know where I’d be right now. He kept my life intact on the outside. My job was saved. My mortgage was paid, and… Let’s just say, I owe him my life. I owe him everything.”

Nyla listened as he recounted how his boss, Royce, had vowed that they were going to prove his innocence. They weren’t sure if Harrison’s first lawyer or the cops had done due diligence when it came to investigating. Royce got him a new lawyer and within weeks, Harrison’s case was reopened. Thanks to a privateinvestigator, they’d learned that some of the witnesses had been coerced into a statement. At the time, Harrison didn’t know whether his first lawyer had talked to his mother, Geoffrey, or Geoffrey’s girlfriend, but the P.I. of his second lawyer had.

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