HEJ, MY LOVE

HER BUMP

Bertrand got convicted two weeks later for the first-degree murder of Colette, second-degree involuntary manslaughter of a classmate and parents, child-on-child sexual abuse, kidnapping, and the list went on. All this ended with a life sentence required by the prosecutor.

Jonas assisted in the sentencing hearing. He wanted to witness the verdict. As expected, Bertrand didn't show any remorse, nor did he listen, as he decided to sleep during most of the hearing, indicating he didn't care less about the judge's assessment.

The judges, too, showed no mercy when they set the appel at twenty-five years.

Ms. Gauthier didn't assist her hearing. The trial seemed too much for the woman who managed to have herself hospitalized for her heart condition. Her husband stood alone when their verdict fell. They didn't kill anyone, but they got sentenced for corruption, bribery, privacy invasion, and non-assistance to a person in danger. The prosecutor required fifteen years, but they got ten years with an appeal possible at the halfway mark.

They saw the judgment revised to the initial fifteen when revelations concerning their donations to political parties during elections and other money laundering activities. Mr. Gauthier didn't walk out silently, "I know all your faces. Who do you think you are? Do you think you can do this to me? You'll pay for this," the man yelled at Dijon's judges of La Cour d'Assises [court competent for crime affairs].

All of Gauthiers had their accounts frozen and possessions seized. Wherever they headed, they didn't have the financial means to corrupt anyone.

Sierra finally saw the end of the tunnel. She no longer heard this voice telling her to look behind her. Now she faced another trial that she hoped would be pleasant.

Her friends all hung on her words at Blend Burgers in Bastille.

"Sierra, spit it out," Jade said.

"Listen, it's visible. We all saw it when you arrived."

"May," Jade exclaimed.

"What? She's pregㅡ."

Jade widened her eyes like saucers and lowered her voice to the most profound note of a tuba, "please shut up, May, let her say it."

Sierra smiled, "I'm pregnant."

"Awwwwwww," Jade squealed and hugged her.

"I thought no one noticed."

Jade snapped her fingers all around herself, "excuse me, gurl, you're stomach is poking out like look-at-me-now."

It was true, unlike Sierra's first pregnancy, her body knew the process and immediately outlined its frame. Staying put at home didn't help her either. Sierra put on weight fast, and now she had entered the second semester, her bump blew up.

"How many are in there? I mean, you're barely halfway."

Sierra laughed and caressed her stomach, "one, I hope." She frowned, "are you saying I'm fat?"

"No, it's just your stomach is like boom."

Sierra looked around the table. Her friends learned the story in the press. None ever imagined or suspected what she lived. They met a girl in college, became friends, and accepted her as she was. Sierra didn't seek or portray anything that could show her traumas.

She was that kid, the one supposed to have the brooding dark stare and hell running loose behind it. Yet, all everyone saw was smoke. Her smile hid so much. In books, people like Sierra hated all of humanity while waiting for some knight in shining armor. Her knight slipped his ID under her door and gave her the courage to face adversity. In the end, it was her testimony that weighed.