Chapter Thirty-five

30 weeks

It was early morning when Sarah woke up, the room was still dark and Richie's arms were still holding her strongly, at which she smiled. In his arms, she always felt safe. He always protected her.

She also heard his steady breathing behind her. She didn't want to wake him up but she needed to go to the bathroom. Moving away from him very carefully, she got up and quietly walked to the bathroom.

The quiet around her gave her a very peaceful feeling but she hoped it wasn't the quiet before the storm.

Returning to the bedroom, she saw Richie was still asleep. Being just as careful as before, she got back in bed with him, moving closer to him until she could feel his warm body against hers.

She was surprised when he lifted his arm and wrapped it around her again.

"Where'd you go?"
"Just the bathroom." She replied.
"Hmmm."

Only seconds later his breathing was slow and steady again, back to sleep.

Without losing his grip on her, Sarah turned to her back, sighed and stared at the ceiling. She didn't know what to do. Positivity, they always said it worked but now she wasn't so sure. What if she was right and Jonathan really did walk away from it all as if nothing had happened?

From that moment she knew sleep wouldn't be something she'd do until after the trial. She was too worried and nervous about what could happen today and what the effects of that would be on the rest of her life and her family's life.

She almost wished that the lawsuit had never happened, no trial, no witnesses. That way Noah and Caleb wouldn't have had to go through it all again. It was bad enough to know that they had lived through the abuse too but now they had to relive it. It wasn't fair of her, she shouldn't put her sons through something so painful. She needed to protect them, a mother's job but letting them testify and see their father again wasn't a way to protect them. She knew Jonathan had hurt them with what he had said but the boys weren't going to admit that, they were trying to be strong too.

Even with the case having been two days ago, she could still clearly remember everything her sons had said. Noah had talked about the night he had woken up because of noises that were scaring him but that wasn't all he had to say, that wasn't the only time he had heard scary noises around the house.

Later she found out that that was Noah had told Richie the night she had to go to the hospital. Noah had been the one to tell her. She wasn't exactly amazed that Richie hadn't told her but in other way she was. He could be trusted with any secret, even if it was one to keep from her but to protect her sons. Richie really cared about her sons, she knew that, but this seemed like an even bigger step of trust and caring. Once again she praised herself lucky to have found him and trusted him like he had asked her to back then.

She didn't regret one bit of their relationship, they had their disagreements, like when Richie though Sarah shouldn't work but after Sarah explained to him why she had to he let her go. The same had happened when Sarah was in the hospital, the first time and even more so the second time. Soon she was going to give him what he wanted.

Sarah closed her eyes and gathered her thoughts, she wasn't thinking about her marriage and relationship. Opening her eyes again, she thought back to the trial once again. A little surprised she felt a kick inside her belly, as if Sammy didn't agree to what she was doing. She put her hand her belly to calm the baby down again.

After she had heard Caleb talk in court, she had hoped Jonathan would be sent to jail forever. What he had done to her son was so cruel she just wanted to hold Caleb and never let him go. She had to remind herself that he hadn't hurt Caleb physically when he only wanted to help when she was hurt badly. As he was telling the story in court, Sarah couldn't believe her ears, she hadn't ever heard him say it and she couldn't even remember when it happened. More than one time Jonathan would hurt her so much that she'd faint because of the pain.

Other than her heart breaking for Caleb, it was also filled with love for him, how he had ignored his father and had tried to help her when Jonathan wouldn't notice it. He was a brave child and she was very proud of him to stand up to his father like that, even if he hadn't known back then.

Hopefully, after they'd go home tomorrow they could finally leave the whole ordeal behind them and move on from it, continue the happy life they were leading up until that one phonecall changed it for all of them.

"What's wrong?" She felt Richie's arm tighten around her waist and starting to stroke her belly with his hand.
"Nothing." She answered and turned in his arms to face him. "Why are you up?"
"Was just going to ask you, so why are you up this early? What's wrong?" He asked again.
Sarah shrugged. "Just worried about what'll happen today." She confessed and moved closer to him.
His arm now around her back pulled her closer against him. "It'll be fine."
"You don't know that. He's always gotten away with everything."
"He's not getting away with this, the charges alone are bad enough to nerver let him walk free again."
"I hope so." A deep sigh escaped her.

She snuggled back in her husband's safe and protecting arms, hoping that he was right about this. Only a day ago she had felt positive that Jonathan would be sent to jail but now her hope had suddenly left. As if she knew it wasn't going to happen and that she should prepare for it. Hopefully it was only a feeling that she had and she's be proven wrong in a few hours.

Richie tilted her head up to look her in the eyes and softly kissed her.

"It will be fine." He said resolutely. There simply wasn't any other way. It wasn't an option, it was where Jonathan belonged after all those years. Surely a judge would see that too.

After this afternoon, tonight, it would finally be over for Sarah. Even though they had met, gotten married and we're having their own child, he knew it was still hard for but now that they were this close to Jonathan going to jail, he hoped that it finally really could be over for Sarah, for everyone.