Page 62 of Craving Venom

“And what happened next?”

“I don’t remember all of it.”

Carrie steps forward. “Should I remind you?”

Yvette shoots up from her seat. “Objection! Relevance.”

Overruled.

“Zane beat him,” Gabriella finally admits. “Dragged him out by the collar and kicked him down the porch stairs.”

“Kicked?” Carrie arches a brow. “Ms. Foster, the hospital records said Caleb had a fractured rib, a dislocated shoulder, and two missing teeth. That’s not a ‘kick.’ That’s a warning.”

“He was provoked.”

“He was fifteen,” Carrie snaps. “Same as Zane. And you’re telling me a comment, no matter how cruel, justified that kind of attack?”

Gabriella looks down. “He thought I was crying.”

“Were you?”

Silence.

“He always thought crying meant someone needed to be defended. Even if they didn’t ask for it. He didn’t know how to stop once he started. He thought pain... meant loyalty.”

I watch her break apart one word at a time. She’s not sobbing, not shaking. She just looks shattered.

“So you’re saying he hurt people... because he cared?”

“Yes.”

“And that’s your justification? That love gave him permission to cause permanent damage?”

Gabriella looks at something past the judge, somewhere above the jury box. “I’m saying he didn’t know another way to show it.”

“Let the record reflect: the defense’s ‘character witness’ just confirmed that Zane Valehart equates violence with affection.”

The courtroom murmurs. The judge bangs the gavel once. It doesn’t stop the sound in my ears.

“Objection!” Yvette snaps. “Speculation.”

“Sustained.”

Carrie doesn’t let up. “While we’re on the subject of things that are crimes—” She pulls another paper from her stack and skims it, though she knows the details by heart. “Let’s talk about his relationship with a faculty member”

Gabriella barely reacts, but I don’t miss the way her fingers dig into her thigh.

Carrie continues, unrelenting. “He didn’t just sleep with her, did he?”

Silence.

“He recorded it.”

Gabriella lifts her chin. “It was consensual.”

“Oh? And what was his reason for doing it?”

Gabriella lifts her chin. “She humiliated Alex.”

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