The Fall

Joachim's pov

“Mr. Knight, the court has made a decision. The judge's voice cut through the icy and decisive. “We rule in the defendant's favor.”

I swallowed hard and couldn't believe what I was just hearing. The blood immediately drained from my face, and I was blinded by anger.

I hardly noticed them. The judge kept looking at me and said,

“ Guilty on all charges.”

Given the cracks that had just appeared in my flawless armor, he might as well have been peering through me.

In a decisive manner, the gavel fell. This was the second time, and I didn't see this coming. I exhaled and shook my head and my heart almost skipped a beat.

I, Joachim Knight. The greatest lawyer in town. And my defeat was blinding. As people started to leave, I could hardly hear the shuffle of feet or the rustle of papers. As he gathered his belongings, my opponent, a shady middle-tier lawyer who ought to have been a footnote in my career, grinned smugly.

His arrogance was a kick in the face, but it made no difference. The gnawing sensation in my stomach was the only thing that mattered at the moment.

“Mr. Knight?”

I was startled out of my daze by a voice calling. I turned to see Claire, my secretary, standing in the rear of the room, her worried eyes wide. She came up slowly.

“Are you okay?”

“Do I look okay?” I asked sharply more than I meant to.

She frowned but she didn't retreat.

“Just let it slide.”

“That’s not the point Claire.”

I interrupted my voice icy.

“This is the second time, and I'm fed up already.”

I didn't want pity. Words that were meaningless were not what I wanted. All I wanted was an opportunity to make things right and prove to everyone, including myself, that this was an isolated incident.

This was about the rifts in the reputation I had worked so hard to cultivate over the years.

The fractures are now visible to the entire world.

“I'm done here.” I turned away and whispered, but the defense lawyer moved in front of me and blocked my way.

“Hi Knight.”

He had a smug and completely unbearable smile on his face.

“Heart break, huh?”

I didn't even want to give him a look.

"Get out of my way," I said, my voice dropping to a low, dangerously calm timber. I could hear the triumphant, fluttering pulse in his throat and had to fight down an instinct far older and darker than simple anger.

“Oh, come on,” he added, prolonging it as though he was relishing the occasion. “Enjoyed it all through, yeah?”

I wanted to punch him.

“It's nice seeing you here, and I'm looking forward to seeing you in court next week.” He grinned and I wished I could punch him.

Anyway, he should enjoy his little victory while it lasts.

I gave the man a last disgusted look and walked out of the courtroom. As if to punctuate my failure, the doors slammed shut behind us with a loud thud.

—-

My office was a blur

I couldn't think clearly, I needed something to clear my head and I felt like pounding my fist into the wall behind me.

Claire said something, presumably in an attempt to reassure me, but I never heard it.

The roar of disappointment in my own head drowned out everything else. How had I, Joachim Knight, lost a case? More importantly, how had I allowed it to have such a negative impact on me?

Claire shut the door behind us as we arrived at my office and I hardly gave her a glance. Without asking if I should, I went straight to the bar, grabbed the closest dark green bottle and poured myself a drink. I didn't care that my hands trembled a little while I held the glass, the red liquid dancing. A red liquid everyone thought was red wine.

I needed something to take my mind off of my defeat.

“Calm your nerves, sir.”

With the glass in hand, I turned to look at her. “Claire, there is more than one loss. This case was unusual. Everything was this….

I shook my head trying to find the right words.

“You can bounce back,” she said in a steady voice, but I could see that she was worried. “People still have faith in you." Too much has been built for you to collapse now.

I didn't say anything at first as I turned to look out of the floor to ceiling window. I knew that I had presented so well, I could feel the crowd staring at me with admiration before judge Maxwell Lark spoke. For the past two weeks, the cases I had presented were nothing to him.

I missed Judge Sable. He was old and wise, calm in making decisions, not like Judge Maxwell, who felt like I had stolen his kidney or something, and I knew that deep down, he might be doing this on purpose and making me look so like I had danced my way through law school.

I gulped down everything in the cup and felt angrier than before.

I didn't blame him, it was because the first judge had retired, and he had taken his place and made me come second because he thought I was a playboy.

For years, I had built my career, climbing the ladder of success to become the most renowned lawyer in Manhattan.

But there was something else no one truly knew, and I had kept it hidden for the past twenty years.

I refilled the glass as I turned to see Claire still staring at me.

I took a sip from my glass as I thrust my hands into my pocket. The secret of my nature—that of a vampire— was a burden I'd carried for nearly six centuries. Finding my place in the midst of humans, moving on every few decades, covering it all up under the layer of a tailored suit and a handsome face wasn't difficult.

What was difficult was Maxwell Lark, smiling at me and saying.

“Objection overruled.” And making me look like I work in a circus.

“You can have two days off,” I said to her.

She sighed as she pulled out a manila envelope.

“There's a case, do you want to take it?” My secretary asked.