Husband With Benefits

Gabe walked to Autumn then, knowing that she would have been shocked by all this. But when she looked up at him, he did not expect to see the anger in her eyes as she bit out," I don’t want to do this."

Before he could question her about her abrupt statement, Autumn stood up and rushed out of the courtroom, leaving him standing there askance.

Silently, he packed the filed in front of him and followed her home, knowing that is where she would have gone. As expected, he found her sitting in her room, hugging herself. He cursed himself then. He should have given her more of a warning. "Autumn?"

She said nothing, sitting frozen as if she were a statue. "Autumn, I understand..."

She shook her head vehemently then, turning to look at him accusingly, "You don’t understand. If you did, you would not have..."

Gabe frowned. What was this about? Hadn’t Autumn been prepared for this? " Fine, what is it that I don’t understand?"

She looked at him again, her expression guarded, this time. "I don’t want to do this," she repeated, her voice barely above a whisper. " Arabelle... When did you get the addition to that video that my mother left me? Why did you not show it to me?"

Gabe frowned at the sudden questioning but shrugged it off, "Because I got it during the mediation and then there was no time. Autumn, talk to me. What is bothering you? Before this you did not mind talking about what happened? It is because Pierce was involved?"

He felt a tightness in his chest as an irrational thought took place. Was she still hung up on Pierce? The thought made him feel uneasy though he knew that it was possible. He shook his head, trying to push the feeling aside. "Autumn, please," he said, his voice softer now. "I need to understand what’s going on. We’re in this together, remember? I know that the revelation about Pierce..."

"Its not that." Autumn sighed and spoke quietly," It is not just Pierce, though I never expected that. I always thought that even though I never told him anything, he was always too understanding. I believed him to be mature. I’m not even shocked. Its... what mama said.. I always thought she kept quiet because she somehow loved Gregory and didn’t want to harm him. But that is not the case. She did it because of Arabelle..."

"If I get up on that stand and say that he tried to ra*e me multiple times, that he molested me every chance I got? That he almost succeeded in runining me the last time, then... who will suffer the most because of it? It will be Arabelle. People in small towns can like this one... they can be cruel. They will judge her, blame her for being his daughter. They’ll destroy her childhood, Gabe. I don’t want her to grow up with that. I cannot do that to Arabelle. I... can you not look for another way? I can’t stand there and... I want him punished. I want him to suffer more than anyone else. But I can’t sentence Arabelle to something like this..."