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“He what?”
“He got shanked and ended up in the med room and ended up fucking the doctor.”
“Good on him. Hopefully, he will forget that toxic pussy and find a nice girl.”
“Hey, Scar,” Dice says from behind me.
“Hey, Dice, have you heard from Dane?” He shakes his head. All this shit has broken them up, too. Dice took Steel’s side, and Dane took Ray’s, surprise. “Don’t worry, when it all comes out at the hearing in a few days, he will realise his mistake and come back with his tail between his legs.”
“Ya think?” He smiles at me, and I don’t fucking know, but I smile back. Someone should have some fucking hope in this situation.
We sit around and have a drink, and the rest of the Psycho Six turn up. The drunker they get, the more it turns into Ray bashing all except Priest, who left when it all started, and Tank, who keeps his mouth shut, and when it starts to get really bad, he makes his excuses and leaves.
“What’s his problem?” I slur a little.
“He’s team Ray, him and Skye and Priest. They don’t believe a single word of it and say they won’t till they see the words come from her mouth.”
I shrug. “Well, they’ll have a shock when she tosses them aside with the rest of us!” I’m wallowing now. I know I am. I feel like the one person who had my back through everything has now stabbed a knife in it. I feel hurt and betrayed. “I’m going to bed!” I stand and stomp off, angry at myself that I’m bothered. I have so much anger for her for fucking everything up and anger at the world that my ride-or-die rode off into the sunset and fucking left me behind.
It’s the day of the Evidentiary Hearing. The whole inner circle is there with Ares. Steel’s wearing the suit he wore for the wedding. He wanted to make a statement. I’m not sure what that statement is, but anyway, here we are. We go through the hearing submitting evidence or lack of it, and we listen to Steel’s side of the story. As the judge calls for Ray to take the stand, we look away. I turn my back on her as she walks in; we all do. It’s a show of unity against whatever shit she’s selling, as we ain’t buying it!
“Who the fuck’s that?” Tank barks out. Leaping from his seat, he says, “That’s not fucking Ray!”
“Order! Order! Sir, take your seat. If you do not, you will be held in contempt of court!”
As I look up at the young woman on the stand, Dad is already approaching the bench. I rush over after him.
“Your Honour, I thought you were calling Ray Steel to the stand?”
“Yes, counsel.”
“Your Honour, I’ve known Ray since she was fourteen. This is not her!”
He waves the prosecution over. “Who is this woman?”
“Mrs Ray Steel, Your Honour.”
“That is not Ray!” I snap as I go back to the table, grab my phone from my bag, and turn it on, sliding through the photos. I pull the wedding photos up. “Your Honour, this is Ray Steel.”
“Bayliff, can you escort erm… Mrs Steel to holding, council I’ll see you in my chambers.”
After speaking with the judge, they’ve agreed to do a DNA test on the imposter. If it comes back, she’s not Ray, then Steel can be released, and the case dropped as there’s no evidence now. This whole thing has been a shit show from start to finish, and when they take Steel back to prison pending the DNA test, there’s only one thing he says, and it breaks my heart.
“Where’s Ray…?”
And now, if everything is a lie, I turned my back on my sister; I left her out there alone… we all did. She has no one!
An embrace pulls me in. “Don’t worry, this is Ray. She’ll be okay.” My dad says against my ear as he holds me tight.
“She may be okay, Dad, but… will we? I gave up on her. I believed it all. And now… now, I feel like I’ve made the biggest mistake of my life. She’ll never forgive me for this. It’s the one thing we always had … each other! And I abandoned her, K.F.D. She did that for me. When the time came for me to do it for her, I left her alone.” I’m sobbing now uncontrollably. I hate myself. How the fuck am I ever gonna make this up to her?
Dice
When we get back from court, we all go to the bar and start drinking. I think we are drowning our sorrows, not celebrating.
She was my best friend, the only person who knew the real me for a long time. She protected my secret till I was ready to tell everyone. She knew we were in trouble and rescued us before anyone else even realised we were up shit creek without a paddle. She was my ride-or-die.
This whole time she’s been missing, we believed everything that was said, no questions. The only people who believed Ray wouldn’t do any of this were Tank, Skye, Demi, Dozer, Beauty, Priest and Barbie. Apart from Dane and Bran and their dads, we all believed it. We believed everything they told us. Even fucking Steel.
