Husband With Benefits-Chapter 612: Against Wishes

Gabe walked to Autumn then, knowing that she would have been shocked by all this. But when she looked up at him, he did not expect to see the anger in her eyes as she bit out," I don’t want to do this."

Before he could question her about her abrupt statement, Autumn stood up and rushed out of the courtroom, leaving him standing there askance.

Silently, he packed the filed in front of him and followed her home, knowing that is where she would have gone. As expected, he found her sitting in her room, hugging herself. He cursed himself then. He should have given her more of a warning. "Autumn?"

She said nothing, sitting frozen as if she were a statue. "Autumn, I understand..."

She shook her head vehemently then, turning to look at him accusingly, "You don’t understand. If you did, you would not have..."

Gabe frowned. What was this about? Hadn’t Autumn been prepared for this? " Fine, what is it that I don’t understand?"

She looked at him again, her expression guarded, this time. "I don’t want to do this," she repeated, her voice barely above a whisper. " Arabelle... When did you get the addition to that video that my mother left me? Why did you not show it to me?"

Gabe frowned at the sudden questioning but shrugged it off, "Because I got it during the mediation and then there was no time. Autumn, talk to me. What is bothering you? Before this you did not mind talking about what happened? It is because Pierce was involved?"

He felt a tightness in his chest as an irrational thought took place. Was she still hung up on Pierce? The thought made him feel uneasy though he knew that it was possible. He shook his head, trying to push the feeling aside. "Autumn, please," he said, his voice softer now. "I need to understand what’s going on. We’re in this together, remember? I know that the revelation about Pierce..."

"Its not that." Autumn sighed and spoke quietly," It is not just Pierce, though I never expected that. I always thought that even though I never told him anything, he was always too understanding. I believed him to be mature. I’m not even shocked. Its... what mama said.. I always thought she kept quiet because she somehow loved Gregory and didn’t want to harm him. But that is not the case. She did it because of Arabelle..."

"If I get up on that stand and say that he tried to ra*e me multiple times, that he molested me every chance I got? That he almost succeeded in runining me the last time, then... who will suffer the most because of it? It will be Arabelle. People in small towns can like this one... they can be cruel. They will judge her, blame her for being his daughter. They’ll destroy her childhood, Gabe. I don’t want her to grow up with that. I cannot do that to Arabelle. I... can you not look for another way? I can’t stand there and... I want him punished. I want him to suffer more than anyone else. But I can’t sentence Arabelle to something like this..."

Gabe frowned as he heard this. "Autumn, blood is not everything. Yes, Arabelle is biologically related to him but that does not mean she will have to live in his shadow. And you forget, once we have custody of Arabelle, we still have the option to move away. SHe does not have to live with this. We can let her know when the time is right and she is a grown up."

"But..."

"But nothing, Autumn. That man is a predator and... " Gabe sighed. He could see that it was not going to be easy to convince her..."

As expected, she continued," Can’t we force him to back off with the evidence we already have? Like my mama made him sign the papers? And then once he has given in, we can take Arabelle..."

This time, Gabe felt a surge of anger. Without a word, he walked back and took out the files that Demetri had brought to him. "You want to blackmail him and get Arabelle. I will agree to that Autumn. But before you make that decision, take a look at the reports in these files. Do you think you are the only victim of a man like him? He is nothing but a monster, Autumn. And you want to protect this monster in the name of protecting Arabelle."

Gabe then lifted another file and placed it in front of her, "This file is from the last five years. And this could have been avoided if your mother had exposed Gregory then... Take a look."

Gabe’s heart ached. He wanted to protect Autumn. He knew she would feel horrified and guilty. He watched as she moved to pick up the first file and he placed a hand on top of it," Gregory’s actions need to be exposed. If we don’t bring this to light, he would continue to hurt others. We need to find a way to do this that minimizes the impact on Arabelle, if you’re so worried. Maybe we can talk to the judge about a closed courtroom..."

Autumn shook her hand and with trembling hands pulled the file from under his hand. As she read the contents of the file, Autumn felt her stomach rebelling. Barely a few pages in, she snapped the file shut and raced to te washroom to hurl out the contents of her stomach.

Gabe closed his eyes in frustration and sighed to himself. It was time to get rid of that monster...

Autumn returned then with tears in her eyes..."Gabe... this.." freewёbnoνel.com

Gabe gathered her in his arms, rubbing his hand over her hair as she buried her face in his chest. "Hush... Autumn, don’t think about anything. Just focus on putting that man behind the bars. Rest everything will fall in place."

Autumn nodded. Until now, her focus had been protecting Arabelle. But now, it would have to be on attacking that man...