The Return of the Mafia Boss

Chapter 7

~Shattered~

It’s funny how quickly time flies. In between the time that Joyce Meyers, Andrès’s attorney had come to see him with her ridiculous proposition, and now, he had not expected that a day would go by so quickly.

It was the day of the court hearing. Andrès kept cursing inwardly, because he was so out of his depth here and he knew it. The officers had him bathe and put on new clothes as they wheeled a vehicle around that would take him to the court house. He sat there in the vehicle, chained and with his hands chained too. The chain connected to his feet.

Andrès was totally lost as to what he was going to do. It felt like his life suddenly took a different turn. 

The door slid open and he was allowed out of the vehicle. His hands were still cuffed and being exposed to the harsh sunlight seemed to do something to his eyes, especially because he had been locked inside the cell all the while.

He took a minute or so getting his eyes adjusted to the light before the guards pulled him along into the court. Andrès sat down and while he waited for the court to fill up, his eyes constantly searched around for signs of his wife or his best friend, but even when the court session was finally about to begin, there was no sign of either of them.

Andrès tried not to be downcast, but it was an almost impossible endeavor. Surely they would have gotten the news by now. 

Even if they hadn’t gotten the news of my court hearing, they would have at least filed him under a missing person report. He thought inwardly.

They would have tried to see him or even look for him. He had no idea what was going on here at all.

“All rise. Court in session.” Said a voice, but Andrès could not really bother himself with listening to anything right now. He was feeling more than a little bit disappointed and tired.

He did not even hear all of the legalese and jumble of speech that was going on with the people in the court, could not hear the judge’s words even while he watched her mouth move. It was a nightmare.

“Mr. Manuel.” The judge called once. Then again. “Mr. Manuel!”

It took one of the uniformed men standing close to Andrès to shake him out of his stupor. He raised my eyes up to the judge again, dazed. The woman looked very stern and intimidating, but he could not even be bothered. He was drowning deep in my own depression. What mattered about a little court sentence?

“Mr. Manuel, do you plead innocent or guilty to these charges?” She asked.

Andres sighed wearily. “Not guilty.”

The court gasped and murmurings rose but the judge banged her gavel and the court went silent again. Andrès could not stop the buzzing in his ears. He just wanted to sleep and cry and be done with everything.

“You are saying, Mr. Manuel, that all of the evidence presented against you is false? Even though there were eye-witness accounts?”

“Eye-witness accounts?” he spat. “What? The other employees? My co-workers who I called to help me out with the boss? How does that even make any sense? I don’t have anything to gain from my boss’s death. I loved my boss. He was good and he wanted to take a vacation for his health. As a matter of fact, he had told me that he was not returning back to the company because of his poor heart, so he wanted me to take over the company—”

“Are you saying that your boss told you that he wanted you to take over the company?” the judge asked and Andrès felt like slapping her. Had she not been listening to anything at all that he had to say?

“Yes, he did. And I turned down the offer. My wife here…”

Andrès voice trailed off as he looked around the court. There was no sign of Emilia anywhere at all in the court. He began to panic. He missed his wife and he just wanted to go home to her. He could not wait for all of this to be over. The murmuring in the court grew again. 

Andrès knew what they were thinking: he had killed my boss because he wanted to take over the company. But what sense did it make? He had turned down the offer.

Andrès remembered Joyce, his lawyer telling him that high and mighty people wanted him to take the fall for this and he gritted my teeth in anger.

“Mr. Manuel, the court has evidence that the poison that killed your boss was delivered in the cup of tea that you served him. Residuals tested by the forensics teams show that the same poison was left over in the exact cup that your boss drank from and you were the only person in there with him.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t kill him! Check the cameras.”

“There are no camera recordings of your boss’s office. Something you very well know.”

Andres was livid. “I DIDN’T KILL HIM! WHAT KIND OF IDIOT WOULD—”

“Mr. Manuel!” The judge banged her gavel down hard. 

“You are unable to present convincing evidence that you are not the mastermind behind this crime. Therefore, this court finds you—along with all the evidence presented and tabled against you—guilty of the charge of murder.”

“What? No, wait, you’re making a mistake.” Andrès pleaded.

“For crimes against a fellow human being and cold-blooded murder, you are hereby sentenced to jail to serve out a maximum sentence of fifty years in prison. Because you have no previous records of violence or any such crimes, we may grant you the option of early parole once the court has reviewed your case again. Case dismissed.”

Andres screamed as he was dragged away. No one paid him any heed.

Andres swore that he would get back at those that had orchestrated this thing. They would all pay.