Chapter 290. Trial VIII

Chapter 290: 290. Trial VIII

Maisie

Thirty minutes later and it wasn’t looking good. I was exhausted. My shoulders drooped as I fought to keep my head up. I just wanted it all to be over.

After Zaytsev had twisted Regina’s testimony to her own benefit, she brought all of the bagged evidence forward to be displayed before the court. The murder weapon. Torn scraps of my dress. My hair. My broken nails. My fingerprints. My DNA.

Mine. Mine. Mine. All mine.

More false testimonies, this time from imprisoned Lycan rebels, who swore I was working with Margaret.

It was Alden’s turn to question the witnesses, but regardless of how good he might be, I already knew there was no hope for me.

I could see it in the faces of the Councils. The people. Zaytsev had obliterated whatever hopes I could’ve had at swaying them. I could feel my own execution closing in.

Jericho’s hand clamped around my jaw, forcing my chin up. He and Soren had joined me on the bench when it became clear I was back to panicking. "If the law fails--and it won’t--we tear this hall apart with our bare hands. You aren’t dying today."

"We could go to France," Soren said, eyes crinkling with mirth. "You loved it there. We’ll get matching tees with fugitives printed on them in bold."

They were trying to cheer me up. It really wasn’t working.

"You mentioned seeing my client getting into the car with the deceased, Lyon Park," Alden said to Lana.

She itched her pulse. "Yes."

"A black car." Another non-commital ’Yes’. Alden cocked his head. "After she came to ask for your help to sneak out of the pack."

"Yes," Lana repeated.

"Are you absolutely certain it was black?" Alden pressed, his voice rising just enough to command the room into silence.

Lana’s blonde brows creased. "Yes."

"That is fascinating," Alden said, pulling a photograph from his files and holding it up for the Council. "Because Lyon Park drove a white sports car. Which you knew, considering you met him at that car that night he delivered your wedding dress.

"Furthermore, his car never left the pack. His sister, Jenny, discovered it that same night, along with his cell phones, his documents, a round-trip ticket to New York booked for the next day. Doesn’t exactly add up if he was fleeing the country with my client like you claimed, does it?"

Lana blanched and started to stammer. "I-I don’t--maybe the shadows made it look black--Or maybe he had a different one brought for their getaway--"

"There was a black car that night," Alden said. "The one you witnessed your sister get abducted in. Why didn’t you mention that?"

"Enough--" Zaytsev was saying, but Alden didn’t stop. "Because it was you who called your sister up to your bedroom, leading her into the trap that got her and inevitably, Lyon Park killed?"

Lana started to sob. "I d-don’t know what you’re talking about."

Zaytsev stood immediately. "You’re grasping at straws to avoid punishment for your client. That night was incredibly traumatizing for Ms. Braxton! She suffered a miscarriage that evening. Goddess forbid her memory is clouded and she mistakes a white car for a black one after such an event!"

I froze. A miscarriage? I searched my heart for pity. I found nothing. I was entirely numb. Karma, it seemed, had become a good friend of mine.

Alden turned smoothly away from Lana to face the Council directly. "Then it should be taken into account that after such a traumatic incident, Lana Braxton’s testimony is unreliable. If her trauma caused her to hallucinate a getaway in a black car, then it is entirely possible she hallucinated seeing my client at all."

Zaytsev sneered, her eyes flashing. "One mistake doesn’t prove she didn’t kill Lyon Park--"

"No, it doesn’t," Alden met her glare with an icy one of his. "But it does prove the foundation of your story, however novel it is that a mated woman ran off with her lover and killed him because he knew too much, is exactly what it is. A story, and my next witness should prove that."

Alden glanced over the crowd. "Levi Sommer."

My head whipped back.

The older man pulled away from the farthest part of the hall. He was stout, with a face that didn’t seem to agree with his expressions half the time, and a receding hairline that looked good on him.

My heart leapt at the sight of him. When he went missing, I feared the Queen got rid of him. I was more glad that he was alive and safe than he was here to testify on my behalf.

He caught my eye and offered a tight smile.

Then I blinked. His eyes were jet black. Wait... didn’t he have hazel eyes? I shook my head. I must’ve confused him with someone else.

He fumbled nervously around the flame before sitting.

Across the aisle, the Lycan Queen went rigid as stone. She hadn’t seen this coming.

"When did you first meet Maisie Adams, and under what circumstances?"

He adjusted his spectacles. "Nine months ago. She was brought in to my hospital, after a terrible accident." He pursed his lips. "She had fallen from a great height. We were convinced she was dead when she was brought in."

Lady Graham’s prickly snort carried through the hall. "How convenient."

Quinlan growled low in his throat and the woman had enough sense to shut her mouth.

Alden nodded. "Would you happen to be able to prove this?"

Levi fumbled around in his pants, retrieving a metallic flash drive from his pocket. "CCTV footage from the emergency room. Her medical reports have already been submitted."

I swallowed. I hadn’t moved an inch. I still couldn’t believe it. Good things didn’t just happen to me. I was having a hard time processing any of this.

I looked back, unable to hold the tears in. "Did you do this?"

But all three of them looked just as stunned as I was.

If they didn’t bring him... who did? Gruer? Mercer?

It took a few minutes to set up the video recording, but when it got pulled up, I couldn’t look at the screen. I wasn’t alone. More than half the audience glanced away sharply from the screen. Of course, they would. I was broken.

"Gods," Councilman Derek said. "We’ve seen enough."

I heard a retch somewhere in the back.

I bit down hard on my bottom lip, staring hard at the table in front of me. Felt the heat of my mates curl tighter around me, offering some comfort, and I held back the tears from pouring down my cheeks.

"All of this could easily have been fabricated--" Zaytsev started.

"That’s enough, Zaytsev," another Councilman silenced her, his voice soft, the horror on his face stark as he looked at Levi. "Go on."