Page 66 of Tempting Eden

“Cross, Mr. Laramie?” the judge spoke to Mason’s attorney.

“Yes, Your Honor.” He rose and came to stand right in front of me.

I didn’t find him intimidating in the least. My secret was out now, finally. Mother knew. I’d hoped I could wait to tell Adele until she was older, but I knew now that I couldn’t keep it from her any longer.

“You’d been out with Mr. Mason before the night of your so-called rape, is that right?”

“Yes.”

“He’d snuck you into bars that you knew you were too young to be in?”

“Yes.”

“You broke the law?”

“I don’t think there’s a law against me being in a bar.”

He rolled his eyes. “You broke the law by drinking alcohol while still a minor?”

“I think the law is probably that adults aren’t supposed to serve alcohol to minors, not that I’m not supposed to drink it. But I’m not a lawyer.”

I caught Claudia’s nod out of the corner of my eye. We had already been over this line of questioning in our preparation sessions.

“You let him take you to these places?”

“Yes.”

“You spoke to him on the phone nightly?”

“Yes.”

“You told him you loved him?”

I blinked hard and looked at Mason, the man who’d taken so much from me. “I did tell him that, yes.”

The lawyer crossed his arms and took on a quizzical expression. “On the night of thisallegedrape, what were you wearing, Ms. Rochester?”

“I don’t remember. A skirt, I think.”

“Short skirt?”

Claudia stood. “Judge this line of questioning is as irrelevant as it is abhorrent.”

The judge tapped her nails against her wooden desk. “I’ll give you a few more questions along this line.”

“Thank you, judge. Now, answer my question.”

“I don’t remember. Possibly.”

“How about your shirt? Tank top? See through? Anything like that?” His eyes went down to my breasts before returning to my face.

“I honestly don’t remember.”

“But you went to Mr. Mason’s house of your own free will, is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“You drank alcohol there?”

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