The next day Sera is arraigned in municipal court. I’m surprised to see Josie Landow in the courtroom, much to the chagrin of her boss-- who is sitting behind the county prosecutor. I notice a tall blonde woman in a tailored black suit following my every move as I sit beside Josie Landow. The blonde pulls Rainer aside and they start talking in hushed voices.
“Who is that?” I ask Mrs. Landow.
“Blair Cartwell. She’s from the U.S Attorney office. She’s been meeting with Rainer all week to discuss federal charges.”
I’d brought clothes for Sera to wear but when the inmates file in I see they haven’t let her change. Sera looks like she hasn’t slept all week and there are scratches on her arms. She doesn’t even try to hide the fear in her eyes. I hope she hasn’t been watching the news. If she got deported it would be impossible for her to get back in the country especially since our ‘country of origin’ wasn’t even recognized anymore.
She’s one of the last ones called for arraignment. I move to the front and take my place next to the prosecutor. I’d gotten a feel for the judge’s rhythm throughout the day--but I don’t know what to expect from the prosecutor. They don’t let the charged individuals leave the pen area but I’m glad to even be this close to her
“Mrs. Grigori”, the judge starts, “You’ve been charged with felony murder and arson. How are we pleading today?”
“Not guilty”, I say.
“Bail?”
“We are requesting the defendant be held with no bail”, the county prosecutor says,”Mrs. Grigori is a flight risk.”
The judge looks at me and I realize I was supposed to reply. This was moving much faster than I expected.
“Your honor”, I respond, “I’m Seraphina’s lawyer. Sorry. You knew that. Um…I will….I am requesting all charges be dropped against my client.”
“You sure you have the right case?” the prosecutor quips.
“Your honor”, I continue remembering the flash cards I went
through, “my client’s arrest was prejudicial.”
“Mr. Prince this is not a trial.” The judge warns.
“Yes, but the arrest should be invalidated or quashed? Because the arrest was based on information procured outside the arresting officer, Sheriff Rainer’s, jurisdiction.”
Rainer frowns and starts whispering furiously in the county prosecutor’s ear. Blair Cartwell watches intently.
“Ahem”, the county prosecutor says, “All that information was obtained legally.”
She fell into my trap. Now I can confidently counter.
“Well. My client was arrested based on phone records and a sign-in sheet. The records show my client called Durell Pen but what the phone records don’t show is who she was calling. The law enforcement official who arrested her used a copy of the sign-in sheet for from Durell Pen to figure out who she was seeing and to build the arrest warrant. Durell is a federal prison. I believe that is outside Sheriff Rainer’s jurisdiction. She didn’t get a warrant for the sign-in sheet. She just… took it.”
“It’s’ a technicality”, Rainer says, “The sheet was publicly displayed at the front desk.”
“Pretty sure you needed a warrant to take it.” I respond.
“Keep comments directed at me”, The Judge warns.
Rainer stands up, “Your Honor, If Mrs. Grigori leaves the country she can seek asylum in sixteen countries without getting extradited. Including Canada which is 6 hours away.”
“Sheriff Rainer took the sign-in sheet of her own accord.” I double down, “She arrested my client based on information she obtained illegally.”
The judge takes her glasses off, “It’s pretty
messy Rainer. When you are able to get the federal warrant for the sign-in
sheet we can revisit.”
“Wait”, Rainer says, “we received a tip of that a stolen vehicle may have a connection to the arson case. We need to collect DNA and fingerprints from Mrs. Grigori. I would like to keep her in custody until we can have all the evidence tested.”
“That could be months”, I counter.
“Enough”, the judge says clearly fed up with the outburst, “Rainer, collect the samples and let her go immediately. When the results come back then you can re-arrest. Charges have been dropped…for now. I will ask that you don’t leave the country Mrs. Grigori. Otherwise you are free to go.”
Sera looks up for the first time and a rush of relief washing over her.
The forensic administration office is in the same complex. I drive down and wait patiently for Sera to be done so she can be released. After an hour Rainer reluctantly escorts Sera down the stairs.
“Don’t go anywhere”, Rainer warns.
Adrenaline is still pumping through me as I rush Sera back to the car. When I start driving Sera hesitantly goes through all the paperwork trying to make sense of it.
“You’re not going back”, I tell her, “it’s fine.”
When I pull into the garage Sera slips off her seat belt and starts loosening my belt.
“Sera. Hold on.” She is intently focused on the buttons and zipper. It takes seconds for her mouth to wrap around my cock, her tongue runs and flattens over the hardening surface. I sink my hands into her tangled hair as she starts sucking the tip before moving all the way back down. It’s then that I realize the garage door is still open. I use my phone to close it. Sera seems to have barely noticed. She wraps her fist around the base and tightness it. She pushes herself more out of her seat concentrating with just her tongue.
“Fuck”, I just decide to relax into and let her suck and lick my cock until I come into her mouth. Sera sits up afterward and for the first time I truly understand the hardness in her eyes.
“Say something”, I say adjusting my clothes.
She tilts her head slightly. She looks exhausted and the stress had done awful things to her skin.
“I was so afraid I’d be sent away.”
I heard it. I mean I’d always heard it but I really heard it. People made comments about it all the time and I just…
“You…have an accent.”
She does a double take.
“Paris…do you remember?”
“No. But I want to.”
I finally understood how unlikely our relationship was. I could suddenly see why Sera and Leon had a falling out over it. I always thought the animosity between our orphanages was purely religious but it was more than that. We were on opposite sides of a generational genocide. Sera didn’t have to protect me from it like my brother’s had. There we so many times she could have used my repressed memories against me but she never did.
“Did you…talk to Jona?” she asks, “You know he had nothing to do with the fire. “
“I know. He told me. I just have so many questions about my past. I was thinking about Helios. Was he from The Order too?”
She nods and leans forward so her forehead is on the dashboard.
“Leon told me they all lived in one of The Order’s last strongholds on the Serbian border. It was a commune. Dirty. No running water or electricity. It was a handful of resistance fighters and boys. Leon thinks he and the other boys were trafficked there for labor because there were no mothers or fathers. All they did was hard labor. The stronghold was seized in 2003 and the boys were shuffled through refugee camps. Leon said the camps were hell and people without countries get forgotten. Leon said it’s impossible to get out once you’re in. I was afraid I’d—“
“No. I would never let that happen.”
“It happened to some of Helios’ guys.” She sits back, “Only a few made it to St. Lilith’s. Some of them are still in those camps.”
“How did Helios even get to America? He was just a teenager when he came to town.”
She thinks a bit.
“Leon said Helios found met American guy who ran drugs in Eastern Europe. He
set them up in that house on the hill. Hmjeu spent the last year of his life
trying to keep them out of town.”
“No.” I protest. “Hmjeu wouldn’t turn kids away.”
“He was afraid they’d hurt you because of…who your dad was. Helios made sure they left you all alone. He didn’t want to anyone to be sent back.”
“But somehow Helios was allowed to bully me?”
“I think that’s why he mostly had me bully you.” Strangely she smiles at the thought, “Helios’ past was one of the reasons I fell in love with him. He would tell me about home and the good memories he had. He said the land was beautiful. That there were ancient ruins everywhere and forest like in fairytales.”
She gets lost in her memories for a few seconds then gets out the car. I follow her. She seems to take notice of how orderly the house. In the bedroom she sizes up her old polka dot bag and the contents of nearly a decade spilling out of it.
She picks up the toucan Beanie Baby sitting on top of the pile.
“Do you remember your mom”, I ask gesturing to the Beanie Baby’s tag.
She flips it open and reads the inscription
“I think I need drink and sex before telling that story.” She says laying back on the bed. She smells like industrial soap and wearing the clothes she’d been arrested in. Clothes that hadn’t been kept away from water mildew in the jailhouse storage.
“What do you remember?”
“I don’t really remember my Mom”, Sera says, “I think we were very poor. She was really young I think. I remember living in a one-room wood house with dirt floors …. I think I won a lottery to go to the Girl’s School. When the bombing started…I remember all the girls wanted their parents but not me.
When we were in the basement I found this girl who didn’t make it. I’d seen her before. I don’t know where. Her hair was always perfectly curled and she wore such pretty dresses. She’d been loved. She had this toy in her bag. I thought it if I kept this and the girl’s mom came looking for her-- I could show her the toy and pretend to be her daughter. I probably thought that until I was 16. ”
“Sera.”
She blinks away a few tears.
“It was only the second day of school when the bombing started. There was so much chaos. The nuns didn’t know who was who. I don’t even know if my name is Seraphina or if I stole it from that girl too. I don’t even know if I belonged in one of the classes that was saved. Aria just grabbed me in the hall and pulled me along. I think she thought I was her friend named Seraphina. I was a year older. I knew that for some reason. I was non-verbal and Aria didn’t know that. Which means she didn’t know who I was But she told the nuns that ‘Seraphina’ was my name…I don’t know if that’s right… or maybe it is…I don’t know…”
She takes a deep breath.
“I’m sorry you had to carry this alone, Sera”
One of her hands wraps tightly around my wrist.
“Don’t you get it Paris? My life, my body and my past has never been mine. I’ve never had anything of my own until you. You gave yourself and your trust to me. I chose to carry this for you. I protect what’s mine.”
Her blue eyes seemed to darken with possessiveness. A possessiveness that clearly existed before she became a Dominant figure in my life. I gently ease her hands off of me.
“These past few weeks makes that
hard to believe.”
“Never doubt my devotion”, the angry edge in her voice comes out of nowhere, “Listen to me. We had nothing but the rubble in our pockets when we came here. We were children Paris and we came to a town that saw us as a burdensome curiosity. We were indoctrinated by Hmjeu and the nuns. They didn’t want us to be anything more than supplicants to their version of God or lack thereof. We were never supposed to leave St. Lilith’s. We were supposed to live and die in those fucking cults. They made us reliant, naive and weak on purposes. We were not meant to thrive. I know for a fact Hmjeu never intended for you to take that money and leave.
But you left. You always said you’d make it out and you did. Then you…you took me, your enemy, with you. You shared your dreams and success with me when I was nothing but dirt.”
“Sera I didn’t do anything miraculous. Leon and Aria got out. So did you.”
“Leon and Aria had to sign up to fight another war. I lasted two years before I was a homeless fag on the trying to hang myself. You saved me. God sent you to me. You are supposed to be a great man and I am supposed to help you. I’m supposed to help mold you and make you better. And when I learned that that’s what a good Domme does…I knew for sure that God and the spirits had a plan for us. We’re soulmates, Paris. You’re going to fix the world our ancestors broke.
That’s what I hated about Carrie and your Harvard friends. They didn’t understand what you went through. That’s why it makes me angry when anyone disrespects you. When anyone fucks with you. It just makes me—“
“Angry”, I finish “Angry enough to run them off the road. Is that why you ran Skylar Day off the road. Because she threatened us at the cookout?”
“Yes”, she says calmly, “That was part of the reason”
“What was the other part?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“How can I trust you if you won’t tell me what happened?”
“Trust doesn’t always mean you need to know everything. Sky was a threat to us so I took care of her.”
“What about your gun…the bright pink? The one that’s missing.
She sighs and pulls her shirt over her head.
“Someone stole it out my car. I didn’t report it because it wasn’t registered. I didn’t want to hear you bitch at me so I didn’t tell you.”
I take another breath. Whoever had chased me that night had stolen Sera’s gun and Lydia Mancini’s car.
“Last question.”
“What?” she pulls back the covers and climbs into bed.
“My messenger bag. Why is it in the trunk of your car? I abandoned it in the fire.”
“Oh. I found it when I went to the dentist.”
That didn’t make sense.
“How?”
Sera yawns, “I was in Hollins’ office filling out some exit paperwork and I saw it there. It was partially hidden. I took it the second I saw it. I was going to explain but then Sven…”
“This doesn’t make any sense.”
“That’s what happened.” She says annoyed
Sera inhales the calming lavender yuzu pillow mist I’d used and gets under the covers. She probably hasn’t had a decent night sleep in a week. I should have let her be, but there was one thing she still needed to know.
“Darling. I got fired this morning.”
She opens her eyes. This is what? The third or fourth time I’d fucked up and lost a job. In her (slightly) delusional mind I was some great survivor. A prodigal prince. I’d done a hell of a job living up to that this year.
“So…That’s it ?” She asks rolling on to her back, “We just leave, right?”
I look at the unpacked boxes still stacked in the corner of the bedroom. We’d never even really settled in.
“I think I’ve done all I can here. I’m not wanted here. They all made that clear except…”
“What is it?”
“Hollins.”
Sera watches me trying to puzzle out what I was thinking, “Hollins didn’t vote me out. Also his alibi the night of the arson. He lied. He said he was with an evening patient but he doesn’t see patients anymore. Josie said as much. You found my bag in Hollins’ office. Where was it?”
“I don’t know…by his desk.”
Not a great hiding place.
“I think he wanted you to find it. I think Hollins might be the crack we are looking for.”
+++
Someone made a comment about the movie Anastasia and I was referring to this chapter where Sera believes she can use an object to find her family.
Hmjeu’s intentions
In the previous chapter Jona tells Paris that Hmjeu wanted Paris to take the money and go to Harvard. In this chapter Sera pretty confidently states that Hmjeu never meant for Paris to leave. I wanted to leave Hmjeu’s actual intentions unknown.
Blair Cartwell is from Goodwill. She is a prosecutor in that story and she’s been promoted to U.S Attorney in this one!
Due to current events if felt so strange editing a chapter about a horrible incident in a school and a war in Eastern Europe