EIGHT | SAFE HAVEN

"I had to get that back to you..."

***

With each step, or more so, crawl; Justin's body grows more limp and his muscles weaker. Managing to get himself through the back exit of the restaurant he walks with every bone in his body feeling weak, hunched over while clutching his bruised and aching stomach, only one specific destination of utmost importance to him. The pain may subside, as he experiences with every feeble step he takes on the pavement. He feels his knee quiver and constantly give the sensation of giving out on him, but it's a risk he must take if he wants to get to the first place his mind takes him; the closest place.

Upon arriving, he walks to the front entrance of the beautiful loft he'd previously visited on one separate occasion. The reason for his visit was rather resentful to think about, images flashing throughout his mind just thinking about that night...dinner...elegant music playing quietly in the background...glasses clinking...people laughing...

But only one part, one person, stands out to him above everything else.

His chestnut brown hair dampened on his face, he continues to limp to the front door, finding distinct support on the wall beside the door once he reaches it. He rings the doorbell once, sliding down the wall slowly, the surges of pain coursing through his body at the places of impact all over himself.

Justin distinctly heard footsteps pad away on the hardwood flooring inside the house, gradually getting closer to the front door. His vision begins to blur as he hangs his head low, his neck and collarbone straining painfully as his body falters and begins to give out. He manages to lift his head up one last time to see Toni appear at the door dropping her glass of what appears to be, red wine, on the floor with a terrified expression on her face. As she frantically rushes to him and begins to call out his name desperately, lifting his chin up and brushing his hair out of his face – he watches the glass pieces shattered all over the ground before everything goes completely black.

***

Toni's mind swarms with endless scenarios that could've all led up to Justin arriving – bruised, bleeding, limping, unconscious – at her doorstep. She took it upon herself to patch him up, rushing to grab first aide and applying all the necessities for the different wounds he had. Now, seeing him lying on the bed in the guest bedroom covered in blankets, next to the open fire, patched up in gauze and bandages; she realizes just how defenseless he must've been at this time of night by whoever did such a thing to him. She hadn't noticed it before, her mind too obscured with attempting to think what could've happened to him, but tears were washing down her face.

Justin lies there, shifting uncomfortably in his sleep constantly. Toni drinks the last swig of wine, setting the glass down on the desk in the room and rubbing her temples in an attempt to soothe her head from a headache that's surfacing. She hears tiny footsteps nearby and looks to see its Reina, her maid.

"Ms. Jones, I brought the heating pad you asked for," Reina says politely, setting the pad down on the desk. Toni thanks her quietly, lifting her head up momentarily to smile and nod her head with gratitude, "Can I get you anything else?"

"No, Reina, thank you." She says softly, pushing her hair back and out of her face. Looking to the digital alarm on the DVR, she does a double take at the time, "Jesus Reina, it's almost three in the morning, go get some rest."

"Of course. Goodnight, Ms. Jones. Excuse me," Reina bids as a farewell before exiting the room. Reina looks back at Toni one last time before turning the corner, frowning at how genuinely stressed she is at this man that had shown up at her home beaten to a pulp. Reina continues walking and heads to her room to get some rest before the morning. Once again it's just her and Justin, who is in the midst of a semi conscious sleep, constantly stirring and muttering words here and there she can barely make out. She places the heating pad on his abdomen, where she sees the most amount of bruises, and covers it once more with the many layers of blankets.

Furrowing her eyebrows at his loud muttering, she pushes herself off of the doorway, slowly walking to Justin's bedside. As she gets closer, she notices the beads of sweat streaking down his face. She also finally understands his muttering.

"Natalia...Shiela..."

He continues shifting, slowly becoming more aggressive. She begins to worry, exiting the room and going down to the kitchen. Grabbing a hand towel, she dampens it in cold water – wringing it out and going back up the staircase.

When she arrives back at the bedroom, she finds Justin in the exact same place she'd left him. He continues to stir, small breaths leaving his parted lips. Toni walks through the door and goes to his beside, taking the damp towel and hesitantly, pressing it to his forehead.

As soon as it makes contact with his skin, he flinches, waking up from his sleep and scanning the room immediately. It was then that he realized, assisted by one glance into her eyes, that he was at Toni's loft. She sits on the bed beside him, holding a cool towel to his forehead. He feels himself begin to cool down, blinking briefly to clear his blurred eyesight.

"How are you feeling, Justin?" Her sweet voice asks, music to his ears as the events of last night replay vividly in his mind.

We came to hand deliver another special message...

I hope this gave you some insentive...stop investigating the crash...

"Sore." He croaks out, clearing his throat of his voice upon waking up after a much needed rest. She nods her head, seeming to understand after all the injuries to his body. Without speaking another word, she reaches forward again and dabs his forehead. As she does this, she finds her eyes forcing her to meet his, as if there's a magnetic pull between them. It was when they locked eyes that she felt herself fall into him, just as she'd done that night at the restaurant. His hazel brown eyes, glistening by the moons fluorescent light. She admires everything about him, without even wanting to. Everything from his arched eyebrows and dilated pupils, to his parted pink lips with a small cut on the bottom one.

"Thank you."

At this she smiles, holding the eye contact that's making her heart want to lurch out of her chest. However, at the same time, she's curious as to how this had happened and who'd have wanted to hurt Justin in such a terrible manner. She nods her head, placing her manicured hand over his that lies at his side. He feels a surge of warmth course through his body, seeming to soothe every single bruise, cut, and throb he's experiencing. The pain seems to subside and he's left with small pulses of discomfort.

"You're hurt."

Toni immediately looks to his hazel eyes once more, noticing that they're not meeting hers – but instead they're looking at the palm of her hand. It's wrapped in thin gauze, a stain of blood bleeding through it. He looks sincerely concerned as he looks up at her again, groaning slightly at the discomfort of his stomach.

She musters up a chaste chuckle, "I dropped a glass yesterday – it's nothing."

"I saw you drop that glass, before I blacked out."

"It's alright, Justin. I was just cleaning it up and slipped onto a shard," Toni justifies, slowly hiding her injured hand behind her back in an attempt to rid their conversation of the topic.

"I caused you to hurt yourself."

"It's not like that, I'm sure I would've dropped it even if —"

Realization seems to dawn on him at that moment, for he interrupts her in the middle of her sentence, "Just like I caused Sheila and Natalia to get in that accident."

Toni physically retracts her body, removing the towel from his forehead and finding herself speechless. Although the events of that night had nothing to do with her, it pained her for him to have said those words. It brought back every bad memory of her brothers' death, and physically pained her to hear that Justin could possibly think he'd caused their death. A sudden pulse of pain in her chest causes her to take a deep breath. She looks to Justin again through the pain, seeing how his eyes water, realizing that hers are too.

How could he blame himself for something like that?

Toni sighs, licking her lips, "Justin, you couldn't have prevented that from happening, you didn't know they... that those events would've happened."

"I could have prevented it. Had I gone out to get dinner, they'd still be here. Alive, healthy."

"You don't know that," She says sternly, although she doesn't sound like it, "Look," She licks her lips and readjusts herself on the bed, "When my brother was alive, he would constantly look out for me. Make sure I was okay, that I had everything I needed. Lauren too. He always put us before him. When he died, I always thought the same thing. What if he had worried about himself before us? Would he still be alive? And that was eating me alive," Toni breathes out, her breathing becoming the slightest bit heavier, "And then I realized, he did that because he was at peace with our safety. It made him okay knowing that we were fine..." She trails off, beginning to feel her voice break and her throat clog up, "Countless times I look back and wish I would've asked him more often, checked up on what he was doing, if he was alright..."

She lets out a sob without even realizing it's development. Justin feels his heart throb at seeing her cry, and can only act instinctively by placing his hand over her injured one. Toni sighs and wipes her tears with her other hand, Justin seeming to calm her down by rubbing her knuckles gently. She smiles through the tears as his hand reaches up slowly to wipe a stray tear. At the touch, she feels the pain in her chest wash away and loses herself in his beautiful eyes once more. It's as if the world stops around her, and it's just him and her, stopped in time.

"I'm sure he loved you very much."

"Just like Shiela and Natalia loved you."

His hazel eyes twinkle, a hint of love and pure admiration in his eyes after what she'd just told him. They remain that way for what feels like forever, not wanting to look away from one another. Justin lies still, his lips parted, soft eyes swollen, with a small scar underneath his eyebrow. A beautiful imperfection he'd had since the day they met.

"Thank you for helping me."

Toni smiles, "You undoubtedly know I wouldn't have left you there beaten to a pulp."

"It wasn't your problem to solve, and I would've understood."

"Justin, please," Toni chuckles, forcing herself to look away and stand up from the bed, "I didn't want— I couldn't leave you there. It pained me to see you like that, defenseless — when I know that ever since that night with the accident you've had a stable barrier up to protect who you are. You're at a place of vulnerability, you're suffering from a terrible incident that nobody could ever make better. Although you don't show it easily. We've been through similar tragedies, and I could never be as strong as you are. It terrified me to see you without that defense, and that's what makes you who you are. I had to get that back to you, no matter what it was I had to do."

Justin lies speechless, discovering a new part of her that he never grasped onto before. The undeniable care she puts into people. That's her strength. Although she doesn't know it. People depend on her, they rely on her, believe in her; making her unique and a luminescent light in peoples' lives. The support and understanding she provides makes her the only thing he could possibly think of.

His safe haven.

How he had not noticed it before is beyond him, but he can't physically formulate words to express the level of alarm and sudden relapse of memories he's experiencing in that moment. All he can do is stare into her eyes, chocolate brown, glinting with what appears to be fear and curiosity at the same time. Toni's eyes gleam with tears, but she blinks them away rapidly.

"It's late. You need your rest. Goodnight, Justin," She says in a low tone, turning around so her back is to him, walking to the door. He wants to call her back, his heart feeling like it's lurching out of his chest to follow her out of the room. However, he cannot find a way to let out all those emotions to her in that moment of sudden dawning. She leaves the room with one last look back; weak, toothless smile following. Closing the door behind her, she leans her back against it. Tears wash down her face like a flash flood, her unable to detain it.

What is happening to me..

Why do I feel this way...

What is making me want to open the door again and lay in his arms...

Whatever it is, all she knows is that it needs to stop.

***

Toni wakes to a the cream colored curtains of her bedroom windows spread open. Rays of sunlight burst through them, ricocheting off the walls and into her unadjusted eyes. She blinks rapidly, the blurs in her vision disappearing. Sitting up on the bed, she leans her back against the headboard, sighing heavily. Instead of sleeping the night prior, she was up working on the case for tomorrow morning. Her head turns to her desk, seeing several papers and Manila folders sprawled all over it. Toni sighs and reaches for her phone, pressing the home button and seeing several notifications.

Kay 🧚🏻‍ (itskaylagutierrez) tagged you in a post:

Missing my soul sister. Featuring our 18 year old selves picking up our college schedules. 😭

Toni smiles genuinely, remembering the exact day they'd gone to Harvard for orientation. It had been one of the greatest days of her life, getting to go to college with her best friend. It was surreal to think about at the time. When Kayla had shown her designs, the headmistress was very pleased, requesting a meeting with her immediately after she'd seen the sketches and finished products on live models.

From: Dad

Hey baby, breakfast?

@audreybby sent a post to Gossip Girls 🤫:
Attachment: 1 Image

Omg have you seen Azealia Banks' post about Nicki? Even Joseline's riding on her dick. 👀

But there's only one post on her lock screen that caught her immediate attention. So much so, she had to stand up and pace the room for a quick minute, only to read the text once more.

From: Noah

Can we talk?

A sudden knock at the door makes her jolt and instantly look to the source of the noise.

"Uh, yes, come in!" Toni says in a fit to calm herself down. She plops herself down on the bed again, pushing her hair back and out of her face. The door opens slowly, revealing Reina up bright and early.

"Good morning, Ms. Jones," She says in a tone of content, seeming to have gotten a good amount of sleep for how late she was dismissed, "I came to inform you that your assistant, Yesenia, is waiting downstairs."

"Great. Thank you, Reina. I'll be down momentarily."

"Of course. Excuse me," The maid says, nodding her head politely and heading to the door. She seems to have realized something, for she lets out a high pitched 'oh', walking back to her boss, "I almost forgot, the young man that slept in the guest quarters left fairly early this morning, but he did leave an note for me to deliver to you."

Reina hands her the piece of parchment, holding her arms behind her back and exiting the room, closing the door behind her silently. Toni feels the paper, noticing how it's ripped out of a notepad. She unfolds it, seeing his eligible, thin handwriting.

Thank you for your continuous help. You never fail to amaze me. I truly don't know what I would've done without your unconditional support and powerful words. Count on me always.

-    Justin

Toni finishes reading, setting the note down on the nightstand beside her bed. She appreciates the nice message, knowing he's grateful. As much as she wants think deeper into the letter and read between the very thin lines, she can't. There's a plan in play. She's going to marry someone. A man that has made a commitment to her, someone who cares for her. He might be suspicious and confusing at certain times, but he did propose. He's willing to share his life with her, and she has to be able to do the same. She'd already agreed, and it was out of love and admiration for him.

At the time it was, anyway.

Deciding to push that aside for the time being, she bites down on her bottom lip softly. She heaves a sigh, pushing herself off the bed, undressing herself, and getting into the shower. She lathers her body well, scrubbing the shampoo and conditioner through her scalp, enjoying the warm water running down her back, neck, and chest. Once she's finished, she wraps herself in a towel, stepping out of the shower. She washes her face and brushes her teeth, making sure to apply moisturizer as well. Instantly, she feels fresh and rejuvenated.

When she enters her bedroom once again, she grabs her cell phone, deciding to respond to her father. It was the most important message to reply back to, after all.

To: Dad

Hey daddy. Sure, where should we meet?

After sending the text message, she closes the messages app and goes to the music application, playing Don't Wanna Fight by Alabama Shakes. She finds herself dancing minimally to the beat of the song, mimicking the sound of the guitar on the track rhythmically. Figuring how ridiculous she must look, she laughs at herself and begins looking through the closet for an outfit to wear to the courtroom. The outfit that stands out to her most is a white long sleeve blouse and tan slacks that are bell bottoms. She accompanies her outfit with some tan heels by Chanel and pearl earrings.

"I don't wanna fight no mo, I don't wanna fight no mo, I..." She trails off, tying the buckle on her heels, standing up and fixing her hair into a sleek bun. Her curls bounce on top of her head as she readjusts them so the bun looks even and perfect. Content with the adjustments, she takes a toothbrush with a decent amount of gel on it and sleeks down her baby hairs.

She decides she's finally done getting ready and starts to exit the bedroom to meet Yesenia downstairs. On her way out, she spots the note on her nightstand; sighing, a pang in her heart. She shakes her head and leaves the room without a look back at it.

Toni enters the dining room upon stepping off the last stair, seeing Reina cleaning the countertops while Yesenia sits at the table drinking a cup of coffee. As soon as she sees Toni, however, she gets up and off of her chair. She appears to suddenly be at full, undivided attention to Toni as she turns on her tablet. Scrolling through different applications on it, she goes to the calendar and looks for Toni's appointments, meetings, and events.

"Good morning Toni! Okay, so you have a three o'clock appointment at the courthouse, Griffin would like to speak to you about an upcoming project..." Yesenia continues, scrolling some more so she can read more marked occasions. Toni says goodbye to Reina and exits her home, walking to her driver outside, Israel.

"Good morning, miss," He greets, bowing slightly and opening the back door for the two ladies. Toni nods her head and thanks him. Yesenia smiles brightly, following Toni into the car before Israel closes the door behind them. He walks around the car and gets in the drivers seat, looking back at them through the rear view mirror.

"Where to, miss?"

"Fifth Avenue and Lotus Street, please."

They begin moving, making swift turns here and there to get to their destination. As much as Toni would like to listen to Yesenia, she can't. Because yet again, Justin popped up in her mind, taking her attention away from whatever Yesenia was explaining. The note, him showing up at her doorstep bleeding, beaten to the bone, comforting her in a reminiscent moment of her brother, it all just tugged at her heart. But she can't allow that to happen, she can't betray someone who's already given his heart to her, has committed to her. As damaged as Justin is, and how much she can relate to him on a personal level is astonishing. She too was once damaged, and she feels like she can see her own reflection through his eyes.

But she can't let this continue, and she won't. It's just creating more difficulties, for her and her future bind in marriage.

"Toni," Yesenia calls out several times before it fades into Toni's ring of hearing. She turns her head , looks between Israel and Yesenia, realizing they've arrived at the courthouse from the commotion outside and the nicely dressed people walking to the front entrance of the large building in the middle of the city.

"Oh, of course. Thanks, Israel."

"Of course, Miss. Always call if you need anything."

Upon exiting the Lincoln Continental, Yesenia and Toni go side by side into the building. They go straight to the elevator, going up to the sixth floor and walking to courtroom number twenty. Toni pushes the two big, wooden doors to reveal pews of people. Since it's still early, they're not all full. Toni doesn't make eye contact with anyone, just makes her way up to the front of the courtroom and sits at the table next to her defendant.

"Mr. Sharpe."

"Attorney Jones, pleasure," He says without meeting her eyes, clenching his fists in front of him. His voice is low, emotionless, almost afraid. Trying to not allow that to affect her, she holds a hand back as Yesenia places all the documents into it. Toni grasps onto the folders and sets them down on the table. Opening many of them, she sprawls them out just as the bailiff goes to the front of the room.

"All rise. Court of the second Judicial Circuit, Criminal Division, is now in session. The honorable Judge Luther presiding."

An elderly man with thin white hair, fair skin, and a bifocal on his left eye enters the courtroom. He takes a seat behind the bench, "Please be seated." They all do as told, except for the jury, due to protocol.

"Afternoon. Calling for case number four-one-five-three, the state of California versus Vernon Sharpe. Are both sides present and ready?"

"Ready for the People, Your Honor."

"Ready for the defense, Your Honor," Toni voices out, holding her hands together in front of her and listening to the Judge for further direction.

"We will begin with our opening statements."

Another day, another case.

***

A/N

IKKK IT PROLLY ENDED IN A BAD WAY

But I fr needed to end it there before I got wayyyyy too carried away and wrote an extra long chapter.

Thanks for all the support ! Things are getting interesting between our two lovebirds. 👀👀👀

Love you guys !

Please vote & inline comment if you enjoyed ! I really love reading the comments, they make me happy & have me laughing so hard.

Xoxo ❤️❤️❤️