Read Listed: Volume III for Free Online Page A

weakness, her
illness, her stupidity, everything that had led her to make such a mess of this
now. “That’s not why he married me.”
    Barton
arched his eyebrows. “Do you care for your husband, Mrs. Marino?”
    “Yes.”
    “Would
you try to help him whenever you could?”
    “I
wouldn’t lie for him.”
    “Please
answer the question.”
    “Yes,
I would help him when I could, but I wouldn’t lie for him.”
    “Do
you like to please him?”
    The
room was spinning again, and it was too hot. Emily clutched at the seat of her
chair, desperately trying to breathe. She couldn’t pass out. She just couldn’t.
    “Please
answer the question, Mrs. Marino.”
    She
opened her mouth. Tried to answer. But the room darkened around her.
    “Your
honor?” Barton prompted.
    “Mrs.
Marino,” the judge said, “You need to answer the question.” Her voice had been
gentler than normal, but it changed when she turned her head and said, “Please
sit down, Mr. Marino.”
    Emily
nodded. Tried again to answer. But she felt herself swaying on her seat.
    “Mrs.
Marino?” the judge asked. Then, “I said sit down , Mr. Marino.”
    “Your
honor,” Hathaway jumped in. “We request a short recess. The witness has spent
the last two days with a high fever. It’s obvious she’s not yet fully
recovered.”
    “You
have thirty minutes,” the judge said. “But then we have to move on.”
    Emily
wasn’t sure what happened after that. Maybe she actually did pass out for a few
seconds. The next thing she was aware of was Paul’s arms around her, his
helping her out of the room, then his settling her on a loveseat in some sort
of small conference room.
    She
leaned against him, shaking desperately although she didn’t have any tears.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Paul. I messed everything up.”
    “No,
you didn’t,” he said, his arms still holding her tightly. “You didn’t mess
anything up. You did fine.”
    “No,
I didn’t. I was terrible.” She stared up at Hathaway, who was looking down on
her with a surprising sympathy in his eyes. He hadn't seemed to care that much
about her before. “Wasn’t I?”
    “No,
you really weren’t,” he said. “In fact, I think stepping into you was a mistake
on Barton’s part. Marino had obviously told him what buttons to push, but he
didn’t expect you to be so fragile or he wouldn’t have pushed so hard.”
    “I’m
not fragile,” she gasped, offended by the word despite the circumstances.
    Paul
stroked her hair and murmured dryly, “Let’s try to focus on essentials.”
    The
faint irony in his tone actually helped. “How could my breakdown have helped?
Didn’t it look like I was overwhelmed by how Paul had taken advantage of me? Or
maybe they thought I was faking to earn sympathy.”
    “There's
no way you were faking—you turned dead white. We can clear up the circumstances
of your marriage in redirect,” Hathaway said. “The incident made Barton look
like a bully. Several of the jurors looked like they wanted to jump up and help
you themselves. You did fine, Mrs. Marino. You did just fine.”
    She
nodded, something easing in her chest. She looked up at Paul. “Sorry I’m such a
wreck.”
    “You’re
not a wreck,” he objected gently, wiping lingering tears from her face with his
thumb. “You’re sick.”
    Emily
was really tired of being sick.
    *
* *
    Emily was exhausted but
steady again when she took the witness stand one more time.
    Barton,
evidently realizing any further cross-examination would cast him in a negative
light, declared he was through with her as a witness. Then Hathaway asked for a
redirect examination.
    He
began, “Did you agree to testify against Mr. Vincent Marino after you married
your husband?”
    “No.
I had agreed to do so before.”
    “Did
your husband originally suggest you testify?”
    “No.
It was my idea from the beginning. He didn’t know anything about it until my
aunt and I had already gone to the FBI.”
    “Who
proposed the