I step into the witness box without looking up, yet, I could feel everyone's condemning, judgmental and disgusted stares. Some even bold enough to murmur their distaste in the Courtroom. It takes everything in me not to break down in front of everyone. And by everything in me...i mean the fact that I know HE is sitting up there, waiting to pass judgment after hearing all the horrible and messed up things I have done.

Don't break now. Stay strong. Don't cry. I repeat this over and over in my head as I clench and unclench my fists for a little distraction, not that it was working.

"Miss Penelope?" My blood goes cold when I hear that cold calculating voice that could only belong to Devlin. The very reason I was here. My stalker, my biggest hater and most importantly, my accuser and prosecutor. His only job from the day he knew of HIS interest toward me was to cause division, fear, torment and pain. I hated him as much as I feared him. He somehow just succeeded in making sure I was too ruined for anyone. Too ruined for HIM.

I look up and I see him, all dressed up in suit with a smile that doesn't bode well on me. Nothing he did was ever good. Whether he laughed or smiled or spoke. Everything was for something horrible. And this time, I was the focus of all his sinister attentions.

Breathe. Just breathe. Breathe.

"Miss Penelope, what do you have to say regarding all the charges made against you in this honorable Court?" he said with a look that dared me to try to say anything in my defense, like I had any.

I take another breath.

"I...i am...i'm sorry...for everything."

"Hmm...what exactly are you apologizing for and to whom is this directed exactly?" His voice growing harder, glare forming.

"This is to everyone here...i know what i did has caused a...lot of disappointment."...