2024-09-26 09:01:49
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CHAPTER 549
Otis Griffin stood when they told him to.The chains around his wrists were tight, cold, unforgiving.Each step toward the center of the courtroom felt wrong, like his body had entered a place it was never meant to occupy.Defendant.He had never used this word before.Kyle watched him walk past.For a second, their eyes met.Kyle didn’t feel fear. He didn’t feel anger either.What he felt was a quiet, unsettling clarity.'This is who he’s always been,' Kyle realized. 'I just refused to see it.'Otis looked away first.Judge Halloway rose.No one spoke. No one shifted. Even the air felt still.“Otis Griffin,” she said, her voice even, controlled. “You have been found guilty on all counts.”Otis’s jaw tightened.'Guilty' was a word used by other people.“Kidnapping. Sexual assault. Attempted murder. Conspiracy. Obstruction of justice. And multiple counts of first-degree murder.”Each charge landed separately. Deliberately.Otis’s thoughts began to fracture.'They’re stacking it,' he to
CHAPTER 548
No one moved after the agent’s words landed.We’re looking for bodies.Bodies?The sentence seemed to hang in the air, vibrating faintly, as though the courtroom itself hadn’t yet decided whether it was real.No one had expected that there would be bodies in the Griffin home where they lived.Otis was still pinned to the floor.Two bailiffs had his arms wrenched behind his back, metal cuffs biting into his wrists. Another pressed a knee between his shoulder blades, forcing his chest against the cold marble.The position was humiliating and undignified, but what terrified him wasn’t the restraint.It was the silence.Sterling was the first to recover.“Objection!” he barked suddenly, the sound cracking like a whip. “Your Honor, this is highly prejudicial! There has been no formal admission of evidence, no authentication of that device—”“Sit down,” Judge Halloway said sharply.Sterling froze.Her eyes were fixed on him now, not with irritation, but with something colder.Something fina
CHAPTER 547
“No,” he wheezed, eyes bulging. “He was— the hospital records said he was flatlined. We paid… we paid for the silence!”Beside him, Otis didn’t move.He sat frozen, his metallic gray eye twitching so violently it looked ready to burst from its socket.The boy he had tried to erase three years ago, the one he had run over and hidden in a high-security medical wing to rot, was staring directly at him.The paramedic stopped the wheelchair at the front of the gallery.Slowly, with tremulous effort that made the entire courtroom hold its breath, Jemie lifted his head. His neck cracked audibly in the silence.Sterling tried to speak, but his voice came out as a pathetic squeak.“Your Honor! This—this person is clearly not lucid! He is a medical phantom! This is—”“I am not a phantom,” Jemie interrupted.His voice was a low, rusted rasp, heavy with the Russian accent he shared with his sister.It was the sound of someone buried alive who had clawed his way back through the dirt.He didn’t lo
CHAPTER 546
The judge studied the man in the aisle, her eyes narrowing as her brows arched.She listened in silence as words flew back and forth between the man and the lawyer, then raised her gavel.“Enough!”Judge Halloway slammed it down three times, the sound cracking through the courtroom like thunder.“Mr. Sterling, sit down. Bailiffs, hold your positions.”She leaned forward over the bench, her sharp gaze boring into the man.“You are making a very serious claim, sir. You are saying that a witness, previously believed to be incapacitated, is currently en route to this courtroom in a wheelchair?”“Yes, Your Honor,” the man replied, his voice finally steady. “And he isn’t coming just to talk. He’s coming to show you what Otis Griffin did to his body before he tried to turn him into a ghost.”Sterling was practically vibrating with rage.“This is a stall tactic! A fairy tale!” he snapped. “Your Honor, you cannot allow this trial to be held hostage by a man who isn’t even on the witness list!”
CHAPTER 545
At the mention of a witness, Otis’s gaze flickered. His brows rose, and a faint smirk tugged at his lips.He had been careful, meticulous when he lured her. There was no way a witness could exist.Even Gerald’s lips curled. He had helped his son bury the truth. Only Elena knew what had happened that night, and no matter how deeply they dug, they would find nothing.Elena lifted her head, her eyes red and streaming.“There were people there…” she whispered. “But they were all his friends. They were Griffins, too. They just watched. No one… no one will help me.”Sterling let out a sharp, mocking laugh that echoed off the high ceilings.“Exactly!” he barked. “No one, because it didn’t happen! You are standing here alone, trying to extort a man whose shadow is worth more than your life.”He turned his back on her, waving a dismissive hand.“Your Honor, unless the prosecution has a magic trick up its sleeve, I move to strike this entire testimony. There is no witness. No one is coming th
CHAPTER 544
It wasn’t just a statement; it was a confession of a nightmare.“We were at the penthouse,” Elena whispered, her eyes fixed on the floor. “The music was so loud… I remember thinking the walls were vibrating. Otis offered me a drink. He was smiling. He looked so… normal.”Her voice faltered.“But the moment I finished that glass, the world started to tilt. I tried to leave, but he caught my arm.”She choked back a sob.“He dragged me into the library. I kept saying ‘no,’ but he just laughed. He told me that in this city, a Griffin’s ‘yes’ was the only thing that mattered. He said… he said I should be honored that he chose me. And then—”She couldn’t finish.She buried her face in her hands, her sobs filling the suffocating courtroom.Sterling rose immediately.He moved like a vulture, his silk suit shimmering under the fluorescent lights. He didn’t stay behind his desk; he paced the floor, closing the distance between himself and the broken woman on the stand.“Miss Vance,” he began,
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