Chapter 288. Trial VI

Chapter 288: 288. Trial VI

Maisie

It all started with the question, "Tell us what you can about Maisie Adams," and I understood why Alden kept appealing to me to stay calm.

"We took her into our home, our pack," Luna Kaida cried, taking her sixth roll of tissues. "She was an orphan and we treated her like a daughter. All we ever asked was she earned her keep."

My nails dug into the wood.

Earn my keep.

Apparently scrubbing their floors, washing their clothes, serving their meals and spending half my childhood making myself useful so nobody remembered I was an extra mouth to feed had been their idea of raising a daughter.

Soren touched my wrist. Easy, he said with his touch to my erratic pulse.

"We overlooked her faults," Kaida continued, "and perhaps, if we hadn’t, we wouldn’t have lost so many at the attack. Dante and I, we tried, even when we saw how selfish she could be, how power hungry she was, coveting things that didn’t belong to her, stealing them. She couldn’t stand not being Luna.

"It grew worse last year," she sniffled, nose red. "When she turned eighteen. Cole had been looking forward to meeting his mate for years. It broke his heart when he discovered it was the maid who was known for spreading her legs for whoever could line her pockets. No such person could be Luna--"

Crack.

At first, I thought it was the sound of my restraint breaking, but the arm of Jericho’s chair had broken under his hand.

"You’re a fucking lying bitch!" Regina yelled. She was out of her seat, Her fists were clenched at her sides, face blazing red. "If anyone is a fucking hoe, it’s your dumb son who can’t even spell his own name! In fact, your entire family’s a fucked up--"

"Regina!" Mrs. Braxton grabbed her arm and tried dragging her back into her seat.

She fought her. "She’s sitting there lying about Maisie like we weren’t all there!"

Councilman Derek slammed his fist against the table. "Enough! Get your daughter in line, Braxton, or you will all be removed from this court and she will be detained." He turned his gaze to Regina. "If you have something to say, wait your turn."

"Carry on, Luna Kaida," Zaytsev told her, while handing her another box of tissues.

Regina dropped back into her seat, but not without another mouthful of curses. Our eyes met briefly and my Lycan purred into my head. "I like her," she said, which meant a lot, considering she usually didn’t like anyone except our mates.

"She couldn’t handle the rejection," continued Kaida. "She resorted to vile means to seduce my son. Forcing herself on him, sending naked videos of herself to the school’s board to get his attention, and when that didn’t work, she tried to kill her own sister at school, out of jealousy."

Alden shot to his feet. "More than half of this testimony is irrelevant to the charges before this court. The witness is testifying to events she did not personally witness and very obviously attempting to establish guilt by painting my client as a bad person."

Zaytsev’s expression didn’t change. "There is an aim to all of this, Alden. Luna Kaida watched the accused grow up. If anyone can tell us what the girl is capable of, wouldn’t it be the one who raised her for six years?"

Derek flicked two fingers. "The Luna will be heard. Sit."

Alden sat and I locked my jaw until it ached.

Zaytsev turned back to Kaida. "From your testimony, Luna Hayes, can we draw that Maisie Adams is an ambitious woman who would stop at nothing--" Her eyes slid toward me. "--including violence--to get what she wants?"

"She is putting words in the witness’s mouth," Alden said, but Kaida dabbed her nose. "Yes."

Lana was called to the flame next.

There was something off about the way she looked, though I couldn’t place my finger on it. Her eyes were absent, her voice lifeless as she took the oath beneath the Goddess’s flame, before sitting before the statue.

"You were attacked at school by your sister," Zaytsev started.

"Yes," she responded.

"What did she say to you?"

Lana looked at me. I almost wished she hadn’t. Her blue eyes were cold. Empty. Dead. "She said..." Her voice shrank. "’I’m going to kill you.’"

Whispers began spreading across the hall.

Zaytsev stepped closer. "Did you believe her?"

Lana blinked once. "Yes."

"Why?" Zaytsev prodded.

"Because she giggled as she did it."

"Did what?"

"Shattered the bones in my neck," Lana supplied, rousing another wave of whispers. "She giggled. She was enjoying it. If Prince Chastain hadn’t stopped her, she would have done it."

I exhaled slowly. At least, she was being honest. Though, her brand of honesty was currently making me look like a fucking psychopath.

"Can you tell us what happened on the night of Samhain?" Zaytsev asked.

Lana itched her wrist. There was a line of blood there, and she moved her sleeve to cover it up swiftly. "She was sad. Said she couldn’t stand being married to them. She hated them. She wanted to leave. She begged me to help her leave. I did. I didn’t know she was lying and aiming to kill us all."

Zaytsev asked, "You saw her leave the pack with Lyon Park?"

I sat forward as Lana replied tonelessly, "Yes. She got into a black car with him and they rode off together."

It took everything in me not to chuck her in the head with the bottle of water on the table.

"Thank you, Ms. Braxton," the Councilwoman said. Then she added, "The Council calls Lady Tessa Graham."

Every muscle in my body locked. Jericho inhaled sharply. So did Quinlan. Soren’s hand on my wrist tightened.

Tessa placed her hands above the Goddess’s flame and swore to tell the truth.

Under different circumstances, I would have cackled.

"Princess Tessa," Zaytsev began, "you stated that the accused once entered your bedroom and attacked you while you slept."

"Yes."

"Tell the Council what happened."

Tessa lowered her lashes. "She told me she hated that I’d had her mates before she did. She was obsessed with the idea that I would take them away from her. It always disturbed her that I was the better choice over her. When I woke, I smelled alcohol everywhere. She had doused the room in it."

More murmurs spread.

"She gave me a countdown."

Zaytsev frowned. "A countdown?"

Tessa nodded and lifted her gaze. "A choice really. Jump out the window or be burned alive. One. Two. Ten. And she set my home on fire."

You could’ve heard a pin drop in the hall as everyone looked at me. Regina was coughing. I thought she was cackling. I could feel my mates looking at me, too. They knew the last part wasn’t a lie.

Alden made a face. "It’s important to tell me these things, so I prepare my defense ahead."

My face burned hotter. "I didn’t know she was going to make a case out of it. And besides a little moment of deserved insanity doesn’t automatically make me a killer."

Alden shook his head. "Zaytsev is building a case. A strong one. Enough counts of ’deserved moments of insanity’, and she’ll have convinced the Council you are insane and should be locked in a facility. Some things are worse than being dead." ℴ

Okay. Well. Fuck my life.