A COURTROOM, like the ones you see on TV, lit up with camera flashes, circled with news vans parked at haphazard angles, stretching down the streets like scarabs. Her fans—yes, fans—are the ones with cat ears and glittery signs, chanting loudly. Reporters huddle outside, eager to get a glimpse of her. They’re paparazzi and they’re waiting on their star.
There’s a roar outside but a buzz inside, where it’s too hot, people fanning their faces with their hands. Everyone sits in rows. She hasn’t arrived yet. There are Mark’s parents; and his older brother, back from Australia; and there’s Keegan; all lined up in a row near the front. The Forresters have District Attorney Anthony Paxton on their side. You’d recognize his face from the news. You’ve probably heard about his near-perfect conviction rate. He’s supposed to be a pit bull, relentless with questions. Tabby will crack and admit what she did.
Her defense attorney is the woman in black, the one with her blond hair swirled on top of her head in a butterscotch bun. Marnie Deveraux. She graduated top of her class from Harvard, and behind her back, her classmates called her Law School Barbie. But she’s smart. Maybe she’s perfect for Tabby Cousins, because she might just know what it’s like to be that girl, the one everyone hates.
Paxton and Deveraux came prepared to give you clashing versions of the same girl, and that very girl is about to go head-to-head with Mark’s ghost and all the people vouching for him. But Tabby has people willing to speak up for her, too. Maybe not just the expected ones, but other allies in her corner.
There she is now, the girl of the hour. She’s being led out in her handcuffs, but there are those blue eyes, that hair, that hint of a smile. She has been beaten up in the news over that smile, what one outlet called “Satan’s smirk,” but the truth is, it’s just the shape of her mouth. Her lips naturally curl up that way, like they’re doing now.
She takes her seat, turns around to see who is behind her. Her parents, of course, and Bridget, and Elle, and maybe a few rows back, someone else who she looks surprised to see, if she even notices her at all.
Everyone is here. You can sit down in the back, if you can find a spot.
Let the circus begin.