The man from my one-night stand

Chapter 4:

Sienna’s POV

“I didn’t do anything! I didn’t kill Jace!” I yelled for what felt like an eternity but they didn’t listen to me. I was cuffed to the table, the prosecutor questioning me.

“Did you see Jace Wright, Sienna?” He asked, he and his partner.

“Yes, yes I did.” God, I was about to run insane. I couldn’t be locked up.

“When was the last time you saw him?”

“Yesterday,” I answered with a sprawled hand.

“Good, now we are made to believe that Mr. Jace Wright is your ex——“

“A shitty one!” I chipped in.

They nodded, “a shitty one you said, now miss sienna tell us, why did you visit your ex again?”

“Because he kept calling my phone after I caught him fucking my friend. I walked out quietly but the asshole would not leave me alone. I blocked his line but he always found a way to get to me. Yesterday I learned that my mother was sick and then he called me the second time that evening. I was angry, so I took my father’s bat and went to his apartment…..”

“Right, hold it right there.” They cut in.

“No you don’t understand, I didn’t use it on him, I used it to trash his apartment. The television, everything else except for him!”

“Now, you didn’t say he called in the morning. But you said he called twice yesterday. And the bat you used is your father’s right. You found out about your sick mother, you can’t afford the hospital bill, and you also have bills to pay. You are angry at the world and so you take it out on your ass cheating ex from anger. You destroyed his apartment and in the process used the bat on him. Went to a club, did your hooker job, and forgot about the fact that you killed someone because your life is shitty.”

“No, no that is not right… I didn’t kill Jace!” I slammed the table. My mother was lying in the hospital about to die and my sister’s college money was gone. I couldn’t be locked up over that ass.

“You said you were angry and went to his house with a bat, did you not? You trashed his apartment. Everything but him? And from the picture we received, his nose was broken. Now you said you didn’t touch him but you broke his nose. Do you mind explaining that to us?” My interrogator quirked a brow at me, the all-knowing look on his face and it said one word, culprit.

Fuck that looked bad. It was bad. “I want a lawyer,” I instantly said. Cursing internally that I didn’t ask for that sooner. But how would I get the money to pay the fucking lawyer. Tears stung at the corner of my eyes but I blinked it away.

“Very well, do you have any particular one, or a public one?” I could hear the sarcasm that accompanied his question.

“Public,” I said and brought my head down.

******

It was two days now in a row and no lawyer had taken up my case. The one I was fortunate to have asked me to plead guilty. I have been moved to a cell in the meantime.

I was on the verge of having a breakdown. I hugged myself at night and cried. No one had come to look for me. No family. I was utterly alone.

The cellar clicked and they called my number. “A lawyer has come for you.” The lady in charge said.

She took me out into a room. The lawyer’s back was to me. He never turned till I was before……HIM!

The man from my one-night stand.

“No! Not him. No!” I immediately jerked back.

He observed me from his lashes, then turned to the cop. “Why is she still cuffed? She is not a criminal till proven otherwise.” He completely ignored everything I said.

The woman was about to argue but he closed his file I hadn’t known was open until this moment. “Do you want to explain to the jury why my client is cuffed when it hasn’t been proven that she killed the victim?”

“She hasn’t consented to accepting you as her——“

“I consent! I consent!” I quickly cut in. The cuffs biting into my skin. He looked at me and I averted my gaze because they were so intense that it felt hot.

“Mr. Greyson, I don’t want you causing a scene in my territory. I’ll do as you ask.” She knew him, he was a popular lawyer.

How popular was the question?

As she worked my cuffs she grumbled some incoherent words about lawyers.

When we were left alone. His icy stare rendered me in a pool of heat and embarrassment.

“Okay, I need you to be honest with me, Miss Sienna, did you kill the victim?”

My names had never felt polished until he said it. He made it sound so rich. Like a limited piece preserved in the museum.

I deterred those thoughts and blinked away any thoughts of him from my mind. “I didn’t do it. I didn’t kill him. I swear. I have never killed anyone. He is my ex-boyfriend. A shitty one at that.” I ran him through the incident that happened without letting anything out. He kept quiet and listened through it.

“You have to believe me.” I urged him because up until now everyone believed I did it.

“I do.” He said. “We just have to prove that you didn’t do it to other people.”

“You do? You believe me?!” I practically yelled. “Not just because you are my lawyer?”

He spared a glance at me. “I believe because it is my job as a lawyer and because you are impulsive but not stupid.” He fetched white sheets of paper. Sprawled them across the wooden table.

“How do I pay you, I…..I..don’t have the money to ummm… to pay you.” I watched him as he retrieved what he was looking for.

“I have a way you can pay me.” He spoke and placed his hand on the table as he locked a steely gaze with me. “You can marry me.” He said the word without a stutter, a blink of an eye, or anything of sought.

“What?!” I blurted with an exaggerated gesture. “Are you insane? I’m only twenty-two and you want me to marry you.”

He watched me with keen interest, lazy eyes staring at me with his head impossibly held upright like a wind would never get it to tilt.

“You are serious?” I quizzed, appalled by his impetus request.

“Your crime if it is not proven otherwise is first-degree murder. Now if you plead guilty and they give you a pardon, you will have roughly fourteen years, and from my calculations is a lot of time. You don’t have a lot of time.”

“So, you are just going to gaslight me into marrying you? What, you want more of that night?” I was being bitchy, but I tend to get a little bitchy when I was pissed. And now I was fuming.

“I’m not gaslighting you. I need a wife and you need a lawyer. A good lawyer. We can help each other. Believe me, I wouldn’t even be marrying left for me. It will be for only two years. You’ll be given everything you want. After two years we both go our way.” He pushed the sheets of papers he had been retrieving across the table to me. “Read it and if it’s not to your liking I’ll leave.”

Not to my liking? I was charged with murder I didn’t even commit. I did not think I had the luxury to choose.

As I read through it slowly, the benefits that came with it were mouth-watering until I saw the conditions. One in particular that made me gasp. “I have to get pregnant?!”

He nodded.

“What, I can’t get pregnant!”

“You can’t or don’t want to,” he arched his perfectly carved brow at me.

“I don’t want to.” I have never wanted children. Not when I was raised in such a broken family. I didn’t trust myself not to break another soul.

“Very well then. I wouldn’t force that upon you.” He began picking the sheets of paper.

“But is that really important? Can’t we skip it?” The money that came with it was enough to begin the mother’s treatment. I could spare my sister some for college. And after the deal, there was another goodbye gift.

“The child is the sole reason for the deal.” He took the paper back, but I held it away.

“We can adopt,” I suggested.

“I’m sorry Miss Sienna, but it must be mine. And if you are going to agree you must be the one to carry it.”

He took the document from me. I stared as he stowed it into his black leather bag. It was as though my ticket to get out of hell was slipping away from me. Life in prison, dying mother, my sister, bills.

Just one child was enough to sacrifice for everything. I would take lessons on how to be a good parent. I would move to a soft city, and visit once in a while. I could.

“Wait!” I yelled with my eyes shut. “If I agree, when do I leave here?” I asked, my heart drumming with intensity as I felt my blood roar in my ears, so loud I feared I might not hear his answer.

“Now.” He answered unwaveringly.

“Now?!” I shot up. He nodded.

“But in exchange, you will have to start the contract agreement, if you agree, you will sign on it.”

I didn’t trust him. Hot, smart pristine man from the upper side of the city. There was more to it. There got to be.

But being locked in here wasn’t a chance I wanted to take. Even if I had to die for my family to be happy I would fucking do it. Marry him? Be a mother? Name it. I would do it in a heartbeat.

“Okay, I agree.”

He looked at me, this time with a flash of emotion. The first emotion I’ve seen in this rigid man’s face.

“I will do it.”