LOGINSELENA POVIt had been two weeks since I got back home.Two whole weeks of the same four walls, the same ceiling, the same perfectly arranged pillows I wasn't allowed to rearrange because apparently even that qualified as unnecessary exertion. Two weeks of being watched, monitored, hovered over, and generally treated like something that might shatter if someone breathed too close to it.Alexander Blackwood had officially decided I was made of glass.I sighed dramatically and rolled over on the bed for what felt like the hundredth time since morning, staring up at the ceiling like it had personally wronged me in a previous life."Bored already?"Adriana's voice floated over from the couch, unbothered and deeply amused, where she sat cross-legged with a bag of chips balanced on her knee and my iPad propped shamelessly in her other hand."Already?" I turned my head to fix her with the flattest look I could manage. "Adriana, I am dying."She burst out laughing…the full, unrestrained kin
SELENA POVMy heart shook violently inside my chest, each beat louder and more unsteady than the last.The entire courtroom had gone completely silent after the judge began speaking, the weight of my fate suspended in the air above me like a storm cloud swollen to its absolute limit. I could feel every eye in that room without looking at any of them. Every breath. Every stillness.My fingers moved unconsciously to my stomach.I swallowed hard, squeezing my eyes shut for just a second. Please…Then the judge's voice came again. Loud. Final. Cutting through every other sound in the world."For the case of Miss Selena Gidotti accused of the murder of Stephanie Stone…"My breath stopped entirely."Miss Selena Gidotti is hereby discharged and acquitted."A broken sound escaped my lips before I could stop it, something between a sob and a gasp that I had no name for. The tears came instantly after, hot and completely uncontrollable, blurring the entire courtroom into a wash of light and c
ATTORNEY EMMA POV I sighed for what felt like the hundredth time inside the car, my nerves completely shredded down to nothing. I couldn't believe today had finally come. The day Selena's fate would be decided, one way or the other, in front of everyone, with no more time to prepare and no room left for mistakes. My fingers tightened around the thick stack of documents resting on my lap. Evidence files, photographs, forensic reports, witness statements…everything I had managed to scrape together within such a brutally short window of time. I had worked through nights for this. Skipped meals. Ignored sleep. And still, sitting here now with the courthouse getting closer by the second, it didn't feel like enough. Diego's testimony was supposed to end everything today. I exhaled again, long and unsteady. Then I felt Lucas' warm hand close gently over mine. "You can do it, babe," he said softly. I turned to look at him. His calm, steady eyes found mine, and something about them q
DIEGO POV"I didn't kill her…"The words came out broken for what felt like the hundredth time. My hands trembled badly against the cold metal table as sweat gathered beneath my collar. The room suddenly felt too tight, too small, like the walls were slowly crushing the air from my lungs.Fear was eating me alive.Not fear of prison. Not fear of handcuffs or courtrooms or sentences measured in decades.Fear of murder. Because no matter how terrible I had been, no matter how many ways I had destroyed everything around me, I had never killed anyone before.The officer sitting across from me leaned back slightly, his eyes hard and flat like stone."Why did you kill her?"Again. Same question. Same glare. Same wall of disbelief staring back at me."I didn't," I repeated weakly."Liar!"His voice exploded through the room. I flinched violently as his fist slammed against the table, rattling everything on its surface."The bruises on her body!" he barked. "The domestic violence reports
ATTORNEY EMMA POVMy heart slammed once, hard, then years of training kicked in and every other emotion disappeared beneath cold instinct.Don't panic. Think.The knife pressed tighter against my throat, sharp enough that I felt the sting against my skin. His arm locked around me roughly, but his stance was all wrong. Too tense. Too emotional. Left foot too far back, weight leaning slightly right. Amateur. I kept my breathing completely even and counted.One move. That's all."I just want to talk, Diego."Silence. His grip tightened instantly. "How do you know my name?"Good. Fear, not confidence. "Because I think you know what really happened to Stephanie," I said carefully. "And I think you're the only one who can prove it."The knife didn't move away, but his arm loosened. Tiny mistake. Fatal mistake.I moved instantly. My hand shot up, gripped his wrist, and twisted hard. He cursed loudly. I dropped my weight, shifted my center of gravity, and flipped him cleanly over my shoulde
ATTORNEY EMMA POVMy gaze snapped to the courtroom doors again. Shit.The whispers were already spreading, reporters scribbling, the judge's patience visibly thinning. Prosecutor Daniel practically glowed from his seat. And Selena…God, the poor girl looked seconds away from collapsing entirely.The judge adjusted his glasses. "With the absence of substantial evidence to support the accused's claim, I…"The doors burst open."Wait!"Every head in the room turned simultaneously. My breath caught, then relief crashed into me so hard I nearly sagged forward.Lucas. My husband came rushing in breathing like he'd run across the entire city, suit wrinkled, hair disheveled, and in his hand, the phone. "I have evidence to support the claim of the accused!"The courtroom erupted. Gasps, whispers, chairs shifting and across the room, Prosecutor Daniel's smug expression cracked for the first time all morning. His eyes widened slightly before he caught himself.Got you.I moved toward Lucas qu







