CHAPTER TWELVE *ALEXANDER*

CHAPTER TWELVE

*ALEXANDER*

The board voted me out eleven to three. Victoria didn't even have the grace to look apologetic.

"It's business, Alexander. You understand."

"I understand you've been waiting for this opportunity since I got promoted over you."

"That too." She gathered her files. "For what it's worth, you did the right thing going to the FBI. But right doesn't keep stock prices up."

I cleaned out my office in twenty minutes. Five years of work fit into two boxes. Security escorted me out like a criminal.

My father called as I reached my car. "How bad?"

"I'm out. Victoria's interim CEO until they hire externally."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. You warned me this would happen." I threw the boxes in my trunk. "Your arraignment is Thursday. What does your lawyer say?"

"Plead guilty, cooperate fully, hope for leniency. I'll probably get three to five years." His voice was steady. "I deserve it."

"Dad"

"I do. I knew Eleanor was corrupt and I looked the other way. I profited from crimes. I'm guilty." He paused. "But I'm also finally free. Strange feeling."

After we hung up, I drove to Sophia's apartment. She didn't answer the buzzer. Her neighbor, an elderly woman, stopped me in the lobby.

"You that Sterling boy?"

"Yes."

"She's been arrested. FBI came this morning."

I called Morrison immediately. "Where is she?"

"Federal detention. Her mother's lawyer convinced the DA that Sophia conspired in your father's kidnapping. Judge denied bail pending psychiatric evaluation."

"Psychiatric evaluation?"

"Catherine's team is claiming Sophia has a delusional disorder. Says she believes she lived another timeline where she died and came back. They're using her own words against her apparently she told several people about the rebirth."

"That's insane."

"Is it? Because from the outside, it looks like a woman with mental health issues became obsessed with revenge and endangered people to achieve it." Morrison's voice softened. "I don't believe that narrative, but it's compelling. And Catherine has expensive lawyers building the case."

"Can I see her?"

"Not yet. Maybe tomorrow."

I went to see Isabelle at her gallery instead. She was cataloging paintings, her movements sharp and angry.

"They're destroying her," she said without preamble. "Catherine's team leaked stories to every media outlet. Tabloids are running headlines about the 'Delusional Heiress.' Art critics are writing think pieces about how mental illness explains her 'disturbing' work."

"She's not delusional."

"I know that. You know that. But we can't prove a timeline that doesn't exist anymore." Isabelle slammed a catalog shut. "I'm one of the few people who remembers fragments of the other life. I've been trying to tell people, but it makes me sound crazy too."

"What do you remember?"

"Sophia's wedding. How dead her eyes looked. A charity gala where Eleanor humiliated her in front of everyone. Your affair with Victoria" She stopped. "That didn't happen in this timeline."

"No. We were never involved." I sat down. "But you remember it anyway."

"Fragments. Like watching a movie with missing scenes. Sophia remembers everything clearly. I just get flashes." She looked at me. "What do you remember?"

"More than I should. Less than Sophia. Enough to know she's telling the truth."

"Then help me prove it. Because if we can't, she's going to prison or a psychiatric facility for trying to stop the people who killed her in another life."

We spent the rest of the day gathering evidence. Isabelle had journals where she'd written about the fragments she remembered. I had my own notes about the dreams, dated before Sophia and I ever spoke about them. We found old social media posts where Sophia had hinted at knowledge she shouldn't have had.

It wasn't enough.

"We need someone credible," Isabelle said. "Someone whose testimony would matter."

"My father. He'd have to confirm that Sophia warned him about the Zhao Group before anyone else knew there was danger."

"Would he testify?"

"He's facing prison himself. He's got nothing left to lose."

I called him. Explained the situation. He agreed immediately.

"When do you need me?"

"Her hearing is in three days. Can you be there?"

"I'll be there."

The detention center let me see Sophia the next morning. She looked smaller somehow, her hair pulled back, wearing an orange jumpsuit that drained all color from her face.

"You shouldn't have come," she said through the glass partition.

"Your mother's trying to have you declared insane."

"I know. Her lawyer visited yesterday. Made an offer if I recant everything, say I made up the crimes because of mental illness, she'll drop the charges against me."

"You can't do that."

"Why not? It gets me out. She still faces charges from the FBI's independent investigation. I'd just be removing my testimony."

"Because it's a lie. You're not insane."

Sophia laughed bitterly. "I believe I died and came back to life five years earlier. I manipulated situations to get revenge. I let your father get kidnapped because I calculated it would serve my purposes. How is that not insane?"

"Because it's true. Isabelle remembers the other timeline too. I remember parts of it. My father will testify that you had knowledge you couldn't have had."

"And they'll say we're all delusional. That I manipulated all of you into believing my fantasy." She pressed her hand against the glass. "Maybe I did. Maybe none of it was real and I'm actually just crazy."

"You saved my father's life."

"After endangering it. That's the part you keep forgetting." Her voice cracked. "Maybe Catherine's lawyer is right. Maybe the kind thing is to admit I'm sick and get help instead of dragging everyone down with me."

"The Sophia I know doesn't give up."

"The Sophia you know died in a car crash. I'm just what crawled out of the wreckage." She stood. "Don't come back. Don't testify. Just let me take the deal and disappear."

"I won't."

"Then you're as crazy as they say I am."

The guard ended visiting hours. I watched her shuffle away, looking like the ghost she'd been in the other timeline.

Isabelle was waiting outside. "How is she?"

"Broken. She's thinking about taking Catherine's deal."

"She can't. If she recants, Catherine walks away from everything."

"I know." I showed Isabelle my phone. "I've been researching cases of impossible knowledge. There are documented instances of people knowing things they couldn't have known. We could argue for something beyond current scientific understanding."

"You want to convince a judge that time travel is real."

"I want to present reasonable doubt that she's insane. That's all we need."

"That's impossible."

"So was coming back from the dead. But she did it anyway." I started walking to my car. "Get me every piece of evidence you have. Every journal entry, every witness who remembers fragments. I'm hiring the best defense attorney in Seattle."

"With what money? You just lost your job."

"Eleanor left fifty million. Sophia wanted to use it for restitution. I'm using part of it for her defense first."

"She'll hate that."

"She can hate me from freedom instead of from prison." I opened the car door. "Are you in or not?"

Isabelle smiled grimly. "I'm in. Let's go save the girl who came back from the dead."

The next two days were a blur of lawyer meetings and evidence gathering. My father gave a deposition from his hospital room, detailing every way Sophia had tried to warn him about the Zhao Group. Marcus Chen came forward with his own testimony about her knowledge of the criminal organization.

But Catherine's lawyers were better. They had psychiatrists lined up to testify about delusional disorder. They had "experts" on grief and trauma explaining how Sophia's father's death could have triggered a psychotic break. They had her own family members willing to say she'd always been unstable.

The morning of the hearing, I met with Sophia's defense attorney, a sharp woman named Rebecca Torres.

"We're probably going to lose," she said bluntly. "The evidence for mental illness is compelling. The evidence for time travel is absurd."

"Then what do we do?"

"We make the judge uncomfortable with the easy answer. We present enough doubt that declaring her insane feels premature." Rebecca gathered her files. "And we hope for a miracle."

The courtroom was packed. Media filled the gallery. Catherine sat in the front row, looking properly concerned for her troubled daughter.

When they brought Sophia in, she looked directly at me. Mouthed: Let me go.

I shook my head.

The prosecution went first, painting Sophia as dangerously delusional. They called psychiatrists who'd never met her but diagnosed her anyway. They played recordings of her talking about the other timeline, about dying and coming back.

Then Rebecca stood up. "Your Honor, I'd like to call Robert Sterling."

My father walked to the stand, still moving carefully from his injuries.

"Mr. Sterling, did Sophia Chen save your life?"

"Yes."

"Did she have knowledge about the Zhao Group's criminal activities before your kidnapping?"

"Yes. She warned me explicitly. I didn't listen."

"Did anything about her behavior suggest mental illness?"

"No. She seemed perfectly rational. More rational than most people in that world."

The prosecutor cross-examined aggressively, but my father held firm. Then Isabelle testified about her own memories. Then Marcus.

Finally, Rebecca called me.

"Mr. Sterling, you've stated you have memories of events that never happened in this timeline. Can you explain?"

I took a breath. "I have dreams memories of a life where Sophia and I were married. Where I treated her terribly. Where she died in a car accident that wasn't really an accident. When I met her at that gala, I recognized her immediately even though we'd never met."

"And you believe these memories are real?"

"I believe something impossible happened. I don't understand it. But I know Sophia Chen isn't insane. She's the sanest person in this room."

The judge called a recess. We waited two hours.

When court resumed, she looked at Sophia. "Miss Chen, I'm ordering a full psychiatric evaluation at an independent facility. Thirty days. If they find you competent to stand trial, we proceed. If not, we discuss treatment options."

"Your Honor" Catherine's lawyer started.

"That's my ruling. Miss Chen is remanded to psychiatric care pending evaluation." The gavel fell.

They took Sophia away. She didn't look back.