The trial wasn't a complicated matter, for the evidence against Camille and her acolytes was too glaring. Pleading not guilty wouldn't do any good, and thus the defense went for something else: impaired capacity.
Camille was addicted to drugs, like most of the thugs who participated in the kidnapping, and she went after Gabriel for the money so that she could keep buying her daily dose of toxine.
According to their version of the event, someone approached them and offered a good sum for the job, so they took it, no questions asked whatsoever. The goal of their employer? No clue. They only cared about getting their hands on the drug, and the rest didn't matter.
"As you know, excessive usage of drugs destroys people, both mentally and physically, especially when they start taking them at a young age—!"
'So what?' Masha thought, glaring at the back of her ex-girlfriend's disheveled head. 'Is being an addict a reason not to be held accountable for your actions?'
But whatever Masha thought, the lawyer couldn't care less and put forth the long-time use of drugs, which had visibly fried a few of Camille's brain cells. In a heartbeat, she was declared emotionally unstable and incapable of thinking clearly, making her an easy prey to take advantage of. The lawyer also blamed her uncle and cousin, who got her addicted to drugs at the tender age of sixteen.
"At this age, it's difficult to shake off your family member's influence, and this poor girl was ripped off of her future by her own uncle."
'Trying to garner sympathy, now?' Masha snorted silently, annoyed by the lawyer's tactic.
Since he couldn't escape the no-guilty verdict for his client, he went for the jury's heart, just so Camille's sentence wouldn't be too harsh, and maybe even lessened. As far as Masha knew, people had always tended to pity others with a sorrowful background, messing up their judgment and making them less prone to dutifully punish the culprit.
How disgusting.
Whatever the reason behind Camille's addiction, it didn't change what she had done. That was Masha's thought, at least.
If anything, addiction or not, Camille was the kind of person to destroy other people's lives without a second thought. But that, the jury didn't know, and it certainly wasn't something the lawyer would bring up. Camille had always been good at painting herself as a pitiful woman. Even Masha had fallen for it previously.
…But was Camille already addicted to drugs during their time together? If that was the case, Masha hadn't noticed at all.
"And, your honour, that's not all there's to take into account for this young lady's mishap. Of course, nothing excuses what she has done, but we have to look at the situation as a whole."
A bad premonition twisted Masha's bowels as she glanced askance at her mother, who was sitting beside her, her back held straight. Masha's family was sitting in the second row, right behind Gabriel's, as moral support for the young man. Meanwhile, Misha sat beside her, and her father sat beside his wife.
As Masha feared, the lawyer decided to bring up her past relationship with Camille and how it had messed her up. According to their version of the story, Masha was the one who didn't want their relationship to be known and had played with the woman's heart. Jealousy wasn't pretty and shouldn't have led to a kidnapping, but with the drug and the girl's messed-up brain and awful past relationship, it was a recipe for disaster.
Needless to say, the lawyer dragged Masha into the mess, portraying her as a vile vixen.
"Objection!"
Gabriel's lawyer stood up to speak, and Masha gritted her teeth. This wrenched woman…!
Knowing how much Camille had wanted to keep their relationship hidden, Masha hadn't thought she would bring it up in court. It was a miscalculation on her part.
To make matters worse, Camille's side had brought irrefutable proof of their past relationship, including letters and pictures where they kissed. All things Masha had long shredded to pieces, but Camille seemed to have held onto them. Because of her long-time relationship with Gabriel, it put weight into their version of their story.
Refusing to meet eyes with her mother, Masha stared at Gabriel instead, who had turned around to look at her with worry. She smiled and nodded, indicating she wanted to speak on his behalf.
These assholes wanted a shitshow, so a shitshow they would get. Masha refused to let Camille get away with a lighter sentence. This woman had messed them up more than enough in this life and even drove her to her death in the first timeline. Although it wasn't all that clear whether it was because of suicide or murder, Camille was still behind her untimely end.
So, Masha was called up to the bar.
She stood up and patted her little brother on the shoulder on her way, reassuring him in passing. Being outed that way wasn't exactly fun, although she guessed she was outed as bi, and not a full-pledged lesbian. Maybe she should correct that, too. She might as well at this point—there was no point trying to hide it, now.
Even if this led to a fallout with her mother, at least she knew her brother would be there for her, and so would her father.
"First off, I'd like to correct something." Masha smiled politely but coldly at the defendant's lawyer. "I'm not bi. I only like women and despise the idea of being with a man. Unfortunately, my family isn't all that supportive when it comes to LGBTQ people, so Gabriel, my best friend, has agreed to pretend to be my boyfriend. You can ask anyone, but we've never even kissed before others in that nine-year-old relationship of ours."
Masha kept her eyes on the well-dressed man, not letting them wander back into the crowd. She didn't want to see her mother's expression.
"Second, you got it backward. Although I had an 'official' boyfriend at the time of our relationship, it was Camille's idea, as she, like me, didn't want others to know about our sexual preferences. Also, I've never cheated on her. She's the one who slept around with a lot of guys behind my back; she has always gone for both genders, and I was more like a side dish to her. If you give us enough time to actually counter your ridiculous claim, I can give a list of the men I suspect she slept with during that time, and a list of those I know she slept with. I broke up with her because of her infidelity, if you must know."
Despite her calm appearance, Masha felt her throat turn dry. She didn't like cleaning up her laundry in front of a crowd of strangers, and even less her parents. She did her best to pretend she didn't hear the gasping and the whispered chatter.
What others thought shouldn't bother her, or that was what Misha constantly said. So, she did her best to stay unfeeling about it all. Although, admittedly, Angela's face was priceless right now.
"Third, I broke off our relationship over eight years ago. That's a long time, almost a decade. Yet, you're telling us she's still holding a grudge deep enough to put an innocent man in danger? Is it all right to endanger someone's life because you're angry at their partner or have been emotionally hurt by them? If your answer is yes, then I fear your moral integrity is too far gone, albeit you mustn't have much, considering you're outing me without a care in the world for my well-being, and with falsehood to boot. Even if you want to garner sympathy for your client, maybe you should do it with the truth, and not lies."
Narrowing her eyes, Masha fell silent for a second, letting her words sink in, before turning around and smiling at the judge.
"That's all, your honor. I have nothing more to say."
"Thank you for your testimony."
The judge smiled back apologetically.
'Poor guy sure has to deal with one hell of a shitshow today, although he must have seen far worse,' the fleeting thought crossed Masha's mind as she made her way back to her seat, dutifully avoiding her mother's gaze. In fact, Misha was kind enough to switch places with her, acting like a buffer between them.
"Are you alright?" he asked her in a low voice, grabbing her hand to hold onto it. It was a comforting gesture that Masha welcomed wholeheartedly.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I've seen worse."
Compared to learning about what Misha went through and realizing her baby brother wasn't a child anymore, it was nothing. Jake and Tristan also had it far more difficult than her, but both were currently turning their heads around, with the kid visibly resisting jumping over to her seat to hug her. Damn, even Jake decided to screw off the charade in front of his mother and show worry for her.
Sometimes, it was hard to believe how lucky she was in this life. She had a supportive entourage, people who were there for her. So, maybe, she could take it. Maybe her mother's criticism, which was sure to pop up after they returned home, wouldn't hurt as much. Facing her shouldn't be as difficult as she had once thought, even if her mother now saw her as a sick person.
Because that was what homosexuality was for her grandparents and her mother: a sickness, something that wasn't natural and needed to be cured.
Even if her mother, unlike her parents, didn't scream her opinion on the matter on the rooftop and appeared more moderate, Masha was all too aware of how she felt about it. The discomfort she showed and the comments that left her mouth whenever a gay couple appeared on television made her position clear. The fact that she was 'thankful' her children weren't like them said all too much.