Chapter 114: MRS. VALE, YOU MAY STEP DOWN.

Chapter 115

Ren

I had never wanted to kill someone inside a courtroom before.

But as I watched Sienna stand beneath the judge’s furious stare, I found myself wondering exactly how much blood the floor could hold.

Not because she had insulted me. Not because she had lied about me.

I could tolerate that. What I couldn’t tolerate was the way she had stood there and taken everything Lumi had suffered through and twisted it into a story where Lumi was the villain.

A bitter woman. A jealous woman. A woman who had supposedly destroyed another family because she couldn’t accept rejection.

She had looked directly at Lumi and tried to make the entire room believe that the woman who had nearly died protecting her child was the one who deserved blame.

My hands curled slowly into fists beneath the table.

Lumi was still standing in the witness box, her chin up and her hands folded in front of her.

Only I could see them shaking. She had kept her voice steady for twenty minutes, and now her body was paying the bill.

She looked exhausted. Not weak. Never weak. Just exhausted.

I could feel the emotions moving through our bond.

The pain. The anger. The humiliation. And beneath everything else, the grief.

Her mother’s face. Her childhood. The father she had spent years trying not to remember.

The realization that the man who had abandoned her family had never simply walked away.

He had hated her. He had wanted something from her mother. And when Lumi was born, he had blamed her for ruining his plans.

She’d known before but saying it before the court was like opening an already closed wound.

My chest tightened. My wolf growled inside me.

* He hurt our mate." I clenched my jaw.

*I know.*

*Let me hurt him.*

*No.* My wolf snarled.

*He deserves it.*

I couldn’t disagree. But Lumi deserved something more important than revenge. She deserved justice.

I dug my nails into my knee. Every part of me wanted to walk down that aisle and lift her out of that box.

But that morning, while she fixed her collar at the mirror, she had asked me for one thing.

*Let me do this part myself.*

So I stayed in my seat.

Sienna’s lawyer rose slowly. He held a sealed envelope, and he wore the face of a man who had saved his best card for last.

"Your Honor, the defense has one more item. Financial records." He let the words sit.

"They show transfers between accounts tied to Mrs. Vale and members of Ren’s household, just weeks before the kidnapping." The gallery erupted.

Lumi’s face went pale. Ohh how I wanted to go forward, hold her close and tell her not to be scared because this was nothing just like their other accusations.

"That’s a lie," Neve hissed, loud enough for the row ahead to turn around.

I did not say anything. Because I was watching the envelope. It was too neat. The edges were sharp, the seal perfect. Nobody who is telling the truth prepares a lie that carefully.

The attorney walked toward the clerk and handed it over.

The judge motioned for the documents to be brought to him.

The clerk opened the envelope. He pulled out several pages.

His expression changed. The judge noticed.

"What is it?" The clerk swallowed.

"Bank statements, Your Honor."

"Whose accounts?" The clerk looked at the first page. Then the second. His eyes lifted.

"These accounts do not belong to Mrs. Vale." The prosecutor stood immediately.

"May I approach, Your Honor?"

"Proceed." The prosecutor walked toward the clerk and took the documents.

He scanned them. His eyebrows lifted. Then he looked toward the defense table.

"These accounts belong to Callum Reed." Callum’s head snapped up.

"What?" His lawyer grabbed his arm.

"Sit down." Callum stared at the prosecutor.

"Those accounts were closed." The prosecutor smiled faintly.

"Thank you." Callum froze.

The courtroom became completely silent. The prosecutor turned toward the judge.

"The defendant has just confirmed that the accounts belong to him." Callum’s face drained of color.

His attorney whispered something urgently into his ear. But it was too late.

Judge Gabriel took the documents. "Where did these records come from?"

Sienna’s attorney hesitated. "They were provided by my client."

The judge took off his glasses and his eyes moved toward Sienna. "Mrs. Reed, did you personally obtain these records?" Sienna swallowed.

"I..." Her eyes slid sideways. "My husband gave them to me."

"Your husband," the judge said. "The same man whose accounts you are asking this court to believe belong to the victim." Her lawyer opened his mouth. But the judge lifted one finger, and it closed again.

Something was wrong. Very wrong. But then they’d be so stupid to not know something would go wrong.

They’d be so stupid to think I’ll sit here and watch them lie against my mate. They must be dumb.

The prosecutor returned to his table and opened another file.

"Your Honor, the prosecution has an additional financial report. The state filed a forensic audit this morning. May I?" Sienna’s face changed.

"Please."

I glanced back over my shoulder. Darren stood by the side door with a gray folder under his arm. He met my eyes and gave one small nod.

"Six weeks before the attack, large sums left Mr. Reed’s accounts. They went to an offshore company." He paused, and I watched him enjoy it. "That company is registered in the name of Sienna Reed." The prosecutor started.

The sound the room made was almost a groan.

"Two days before the timber mill," he went on, "that same company sent a payment to an account belonging to Arthur Vale."

Arthur’s head came up slowly. He looked at Callum. Callum looked at Sienna. Sienna looked at nothing.

Now every reporter in the room could see the string that tied them together.

"That’s not..." Sienna’s voice was high and thin. "That is not what it looks like."

"Mrs. Reed," the judge said, "it looks like a receipt."

This time the laughter was real. It ran across the gallery like a wave, ugly and quick, and she flinched as if someone had slapped her.

Judge Gabriel did not bother to stop it. He lifted the marriage certificate and held it out at arm’s length like something that smelled.

"This is dated eleven days ago. Mr. Reed’s divorce from Mrs. Vale was final in London few months ago. And the UK adoption decree, which sits on my desk, names Lumi Vale as the legal mother of the boy Theo." He set it down. "Not you, Mrs. Reed. Never you."

"Love doesn’t keep a calendar," Sienna said. It came out as a whisper.

"No. But the law does." Her lawyer stood up. His voice was very careful.

"Your Honor, at this time I request leave to withdraw from representing Mrs. Reed." Sienna spun toward him.

"You can’t leave me here!"

"I am sorry," he said, but he did not sound sorry at all. He picked up his briefcase and walked out through the bar rail, and the doors closed behind him with a soft click.

Now she stood alone at that podium in her perfect suit. Her hair had come loose on one side.

"Mrs. Reed," Judge Gabriel said, "you walked in here to accuse a victim of lying. You have instead handed this court proof of your own." He turned to the bailiff.

"See that she does not leave the building. The federal prosecutor will decide what charges follow, and I suspect there will be several."

Two officers came to stand beside her. She jerked her arm away from the first one, then seemed to remember every camera in the room.

She straightened her jacket. Her blue eyes swung across the faces looking down at her, hunting for one friendly one. They stopped on Lumi.

"Enjoy it," she said, so softly that only the front rows heard. "You think you’ve won something." Lumi looked right back.

"I don’t think I won anything," she said. "I think I stopped losing."

Behind me, Neve gave one short, startled laugh and clapped a hand over her mouth.

Then a chair scraped, and Arthur Vale stood up.

His lawyer grabbed his sleeve, but the old man shook him off. He looked smaller than I remembered.

In that warehouse he had grinned down at me with a phone in his hand and Lumi’s breathing coming through it.

Now his orange sleeves hung off his thin wrists, and his mouth worked as if he were chewing something bitter.

"Lumi," he said. His voice was rough. "Lumi, I..." She did not turn her head.

"Sit down, Mr. Vale," said the judge.

"She’s my daughter. I want her to hear..."

"Sit. Down."

He sat. Nobody looked at him. Nobody even pitied him. That was the worst punishment of all, and I think he knew it.

I had waited weeks to see that man’s face when the room turned against him. I thought it would feel like a victory. It felt like watching a rotten tree fall. There was nothing in it to enjoy. It was just done.

Judge Gabriel lifted his pen. "Both defendants are bound over for full trial on all counts. Kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon, conspiracy, and attempted murder. Bail is denied. They will be held without bond until trial." He struck the gavel once.

"Mrs. Vale, you may step down." Lumi let out a breath. It was a small one, the kind you only notice if you have spent months counting each one.

She came down carefully, her left hand on the rail. Her right foot dragged a little on the last step.

I was already in the aisle. I did not remember standing up.

"Hey," I said, and she walked into my chest and stayed there.

Her heart pounded loudly. I put my hand on the back of her head and held her, over her shoulder I saw Neve and Julian on their feet, Neve crying openly, Julian’s arm tight around her.

"You were perfect," I said into her hair.

"I was terrified."

"Yes," I said. "And you were perfect."