Chapter 105 - The Verdict
"What will you do with this?" Zaria questioned, referring to the information they had just discovered.
He glanced at her with a smirk, then pointed at the corner of his lips.
Comprehending that he wanted a kiss before he could spill his plan, she leaned over and pressed a gentle kiss on his lips. "Spill."
"I wanted to indirectly let Jaime be the one to take care of her but now that I think about it, a legal twist isn't so bad either. We can make it more entertaining later." His eyes glinted with bloodlust. He had never been one to seek trouble with people unnecessarily but if his beloved sister didn't want to use her brain, he would be kind enough to help her go to hell earlier as the early bird and whatnot.
Hence, the video was submitted to court, and it dragged Zaria into the mix. It wasn't long before she had to appear before the prosecutor in the next hearing.
As soon as Alyssa saw her, she let out a sigh before her eyes shot a glare at her son. What was he thinking. By bringing this woman here, wasn't he trying to ruin everything? They had already come such a long way, and if Zaria did not pop into the mix, she would have probably been declared innocent today.
"Zaria Williams, I'm going to ask you a few questions. Are you ready?" The prosecutor asked Zaria who was now in the witness stand.
"Yes." She already knew that the prosecutor was secretly on Desmond's side. Besides, she was not planning to lie so she was not afraid of anything.
"You submitted a video to the court, accusing Miss Samantha Fort of trying to harm you."
May I ask how this is related to the ongoing case against Ms. Alyssa?"
"She wanted to get rid of me because she suspects that I can prove the truth—that Ms. Alyssa is innocent." Zaria answered calmly, earning a laugh from the prosecutor. He was too good at his act.
"So, someone thinks you know the truth regarding a case and tries to kill you, yet you have the time to record a video? Is it because you are not afraid of death, or is the person blind enough to not realize that they are being recorded?"
"The camera was hidden. It's one of D… Mr. Fort's security measures." She corrected herself since she was here as Desmond's assistant, not his girlfriend
"I was at his manor at the time that Miss Fort appeared."
The prosecutor nodded to her explanation, believing that it made sense. "What evidence do you have to prove Ms. Alyssa's innocence as you stated a moment ago?"
Zaria's blood ran cold, and she hoped that Skeleton had managed to retrieve the video. He was going to make it reappear in her video gallery, so she tried her luck. "It's a surveillance camera video."
At the side, Alyssa sighed in relief. If there was a surveillance video of the night her husband was murdered, it would prove that she had arrived at the scene when he was already dead.
Zaria took out her phone to check and just as she dreaded, the video was not on her phone.
"I…" Just as she wondered what to say without appearing to be making excuses to cover up for some lie she had made up, Desmond stood up.
"Mr. Fort, this is a court. Order is a basic requirement." The judge frowned at him.
"I'm sorry. Zaria gave the tape with the video to me, I'm just about to give it to her." He explained, and gave it to the prosecutor instead.
Zaria let out a sigh of relief when they went to check the video. When the court was adjourned, she went to have a word with Desmond in secret.
"You did well." He praised her, and she could only smile in response.
"Time for the court to take the next step. Are you nervous?" She looked up at him to ask.
"I should be, but I'm not." He had already known that dealing with his sister would be a piece of cake. She was the type of woman who was not intelligent in the slightest but thought of herself as one of the smartest women alive. He only had to use a slight push and her self-confidence would wreck whatever was left of her.
"Do you think anyone would suspect us of pulling strings later? It's something we came up with in a rush after all. We could have missed something out." She pointed out. She was not being unnecessarily paranoid. It was indeed possible for one to miss out on many points considering how suddenly everything had happened, and mistakes could be made. It would be tragic if they left any loophole.
While they spoke, Zaria's phone rang and she frowned when she saw the identity of the caller. "I should have taken care of this."
"What?" He asked curiously, having unintentionally seen "Mr. Preston" on her screen. Why would Liam's call make her so flustered?
She knew that it would be best if she didn't hide anything from him, so she explained what Samantha had done. "She sent him a text message using my phone and although I have yet to recover it, I know that it isn't anything good. I will have Zeus retrieve the text message so I know how to deal with it."
"I'll let Skeleton deal with that." The jealous Desmond was at it again, making her laugh. "What do you have against Zeus?"
"That's a man." Came his nonchalant response.
"But Skeleton is a man too, isn't he?" She shrugged.
"Yes, but Skeleton would never be overly caring of you, Zeus is." He grabbed her hand to lead her away, as though that would protect her from the eyes of Zeus.
They headed to his car, where they would spend the next thirty minutes before the court would be back in session.
"When did you get the video tape?" She finally asked when they sat down.
"Skeleton thought a tape would be more credible than a phone video, so he sent the tape this morning." He ripped off his tie while looking at her, wondering when she would stop talking about the case and focus on him instead.
She frowned at his ridiculous train of thought. "Since you had the video, why didn't you tell me? I was so tense that I started cooking up a tale." She glared at him.
He chuckled and looked at her. "Do you want to punish me? Several kisses would be good enough to teach me a lifetime lesson."
She ignored him and thought about the possible verdict. Would the court be in favor of Alyssa after seeing the video? She knew that the original version was authentic but she hoped that the current one was not a result of Skeleton fabricating a video to incriminate Jaime and Samantha. If that was what he did and the court found it unauthentic, it would only discredit her entire statement and nullify all their effort.
"What are you thinking about?" He pulled her close to him.
Before she could say anything in response, she saw a woman sauntering over to his car. "That's Samantha. She sure is angry."
Just as Zaria expected, Samantha banged her palm against the window of the car. "Get out!"
"Ignore her." Desmond frowned and didn't intend to get out. It was one thing if Samantha was the only one acting like a lunatic and trying to pick a fight with them. However, if they tolerated it and joined the fight, both parties would appear to be in the wrong and it would not be beneficial for them either.
"You cheating scumbags! You will pay for this. I will make you pay!" She screamed and picked up a rock, and Desmond dialled a number. He was not going to pick a fight with Samantha but that didn't mean he was willing to let her ruin his peace.
"There's a mad woman outside my car." He reported as soon as the call connected, but when he saw the situation outside, he realized that he didn't even need to make the call. The police were already grabbing Samantha's hands and pinning them together to handcuff them.
"She did herself in. This makes it easier for us." Desmond smiled, while Zaria was awed by how good Samantha was at digging her own grave. She was a natural talent.
…
When the thirty minutes break was over, Desmond and Zaria, along with the judge, lawyers and onlookers returned into the courtroom.
Desmond, who was sitting next to Zaria, grabbed her hand discreetly and squeezed it. He had not been nervous since the beginning of the case but now he was. Would his mother be proven innocent? She had suffered so much in jail and it was all for a crime she didn't commit. It was finally time for justice to be served, right?
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What do you think, readers? Will Alyssa be pronounced innocent, or is there more to it?
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