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My Lawyer Parents Defended My Killer

My Lawyer Parents Defended My Killer

بواسطة:  Verdant Summerمكتمل
لغة: English
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ملخص

After Death

Tragic Love

Plot Twists

True and Fake Heiress

Bias

Lawyer

Family Emotions

Remorse Family

Regret

In the second year after I died, the psychopath who killed me was finally caught. The courtroom was packed on the day of the trial. Leo Mercer stood at the defense table in his orange jail uniform, humming to himself as if he didn't have a care in the world. The families of his seven known victims, grief-stricken and furious, demanded that prosecutors pursue an exception that would allow a death sentence. Leo's defense attorney, Nathan Reese, spoke evenly. "The purpose of the law is rehabilitation. Forgiveness is more powerful than killing. I oppose a death sentence for my client." Nathan's wife, Ada Reese, was also a prominent attorney. From the gallery, she declared, "Even criminals have human rights. How can we take someone's life just because he made a mistake? Besides, weren't the victims at least partly to blame? If they were decent women, why would he have chosen them?" Leo suddenly clapped his hands and burst out laughing. "Couldn't have said it better! To thank you, let me confess something. I didn't kill seven people. I killed eight." His eyes gleamed with excitement as he looked at the Reeses, his voice thick with amusement. "The eighth victim was your daughter. So remember what you just said, both of you. No death penalty for me."

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Chapter 1

The courtroom went dead silent for a heartbeat, then erupted into chaos.

Someone gasped. "Is he serious? Get an investigation going! This is a matter of life and death!"

The judge slammed the gavel. "Order!"

His expression was grim as he addressed the defendant. "Mr. Mercer, is your statement true? Is there an eighth victim?"

"Of course it's true." Leo drummed his fingers on the defense table and grinned. "What would I gain by lying?"

Nathan's face showed no panic, only the cold anger of a man who'd been insulted. "Impossible. My daughter kissed us goodbye this morning. She's on campus right now, in class. Nothing has happened to her."

Ada's face went white with rage. "Leo, my husband just defended you with everything he had, fighting to spare you from the death penalty. And this is how you repay us? Making sick jokes about our daughter? You ungrateful bastard!"

"A joke?" Leo drawled. "Since you don't believe me, let me spell it out for you.

"One night about a year ago, might've even been her birthday. She went out alone to that abandoned factory on the edge of town, looking for something, and walked right in on me handling my prey." His voice took on a sickening note of ecstasy. "She fought so hard. Her eyes, full of sheer terror... absolutely intoxicating. I just couldn't help myself. Finished her off right then and there."

"Enough!" Nathan cut in. "This is utter nonsense! My wife and I hosted our daughter's eighteenth-birthday party at home that night. She was there the entire evening and never set foot outside."

He fixed Leo with a piercing stare, his eyes like ice. "What did I ever do to you that you'd fabricate these lies in a courtroom just to scare me? What are you after?"

Leo gave a scornful laugh and looked at Nathan as if he were a joke. "Who says I'm making anything up?"

"Besides, when did I ever say the girl I killed was your adopted daughter, Vera Reese?" He stretched out every syllable, each word dropping like a hammer on every heart in the room. "The one I killed was your biological daughter, Mia Reese."

Murmurs rippled through the gallery.

"Since when do the Reeses have a biological daughter?"

"Everyone knows how much they spoil Vera. And she's only their adopted daughter?"

"So this Mia... is she real?"

Every curious gaze in the room landed squarely on the Reeses.
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10 فصول
Chapter 1
The courtroom went dead silent for a heartbeat, then erupted into chaos.Someone gasped. "Is he serious? Get an investigation going! This is a matter of life and death!"The judge slammed the gavel. "Order!"His expression was grim as he addressed the defendant. "Mr. Mercer, is your statement true? Is there an eighth victim?""Of course it's true." Leo drummed his fingers on the defense table and grinned. "What would I gain by lying?"Nathan's face showed no panic, only the cold anger of a man who'd been insulted. "Impossible. My daughter kissed us goodbye this morning. She's on campus right now, in class. Nothing has happened to her."Ada's face went white with rage. "Leo, my husband just defended you with everything he had, fighting to spare you from the death penalty. And this is how you repay us? Making sick jokes about our daughter? You ungrateful bastard!""A joke?" Leo drawled. "Since you don't believe me, let me spell it out for you."One night about a year ago, might've even b
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Chapter 2
Leo smirked and added, "Mia was switched at birth. Her adoptive parents died when she was young, and she spent more than a decade in foster care before the Reeses found her. But instead of caring about what she'd been through, they looked down on her for being unrefined and not fitting into their social circle. They didn't even dare acknowledge her in public. Am I right, Counselor Reese?"Nathan scoffed. "What right does a murderer have to discuss my family's private affairs? If you ask me, Mia put you up to this little performance in court, just to humiliate us in public."Leo sneered. "Please. I don't take orders from some girl."He let out a long sigh. "Poor thing. Dead for a whole year, and her own family doesn't even know. Worse, they suspect her of conspiring with her own killer."The murmurs in the courtroom grew louder."He sounds so certain. You don't think it's actually true?""Their own daughter vanishes for a year and they don't go looking for her? That's cold-blooded.""If
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Chapter 3
Leo deliberately lowered his voice, mimicking Dad's stern, impatient tone. "Mia, you'd go so far as making up a story about someone trying to kill you, just for attention? Today is Vera's birthday party, and we don't have time for your drama. If you want to die, go die somewhere else. Stop bothering us."I floated in the air above, tears welling in my eyes.That day had been my eighteenth birthday too.Vera had come to me, pretending to be concerned. She said Mom had lost her bracelet near the abandoned factory while meeting a client. Mom had been upset about it all day."If you find it and bring it back, Mom and Dad will know you're a good kid."I believed her.Even though they'd just misunderstood me and yelled at me that very day, I still clung to that sliver of hope and ran to the abandoned factory in the dead of night.I wanted to find the bracelet, explain everything, and finally have a real birthday celebration.But what waited for me there wasn't a lost bracelet. I walked strai
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Chapter 4
Dad whipped around to face Mom. "She came back? Why didn't you tell me?""I was afraid you'd get upset, so I didn't." Mom took a deep breath, the words tumbling out fast. "Last month, I drank a glass of water at home and passed out. By the time I came to, I was in the hospital. Vera noticed something was wrong and called 911."I broke out in a rash all over my body and could barely breathe. The doctors found a sleep medication in my system. You know I'm severely allergic to it." Her voice shook with barely suppressed fury. "When I woke up, I found the biometric safe at home had been tampered with. The jewelry and gold bars inside were all gone. The front-door camera caught a girl bundled up head to toe, punching in our gate code like she knew the place by heart. Who else could it have been but Mia?"She knew perfectly well that I'm allergic to that medication, and she drugged me anyway just to steal from us. She didn't care if I lived or died! If Vera hadn't come home when she did, I m
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Chapter 5
"Impossible!" Dad blurted out, his voice rising to a sharp, unfamiliar pitch. "The police only recovered the remains of seven victims from Leo's garden! There were only seven pairs of eyes in his trophy room! How can there be an eighth?""Those seven were carefully chosen prey," Leo cut in. "They were beautiful and proud, and they thought their pretty faces gave them the right to look down on me. Of course I took their eyes as keepsakes."His tone shifted, becoming flippant and cruel. "But Mia was different. She was just a poor little lamb who stumbled in at the wrong time. Fragile, helpless, barely made a sound when she cried. So I showed her some mercy and left her body intact. Just tied a heavy rock to her and sank her to the bottom of the Esser River."Dad lunged forward and grabbed Detective Harris by the collar.His usually immaculate hair had fallen apart, strands plastered to his forehead, every trace of his polished composure gone. "How the hell are you running this investigat
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Chapter 6
"Mia... my Mia..." Mom let out a raw, piercing wail.The memory hit her. She climbed over the gallery railing, rushed to Dad, and pounded his chest with her fists. "This is your fault! All of it!"Her eyes were wild and bloodshot, bordering on madness. "You hung up on her when she called for help! Why didn't you believe her? Why did you tell her to go die somewhere else!"Dad stood rigid, his gaze fixed on the defense table.Leo was watching them with rapt interest, an idle smile still playing on his lips.Just moments ago, Dad had been standing at the defense lectern, methodically arguing to spare this murderer's life.He had said forgiveness was more powerful than killing.His wife had said the victims were partly to blame.He had looked down on those grieving families who cried for the death penalty, dismissed them as ignorant and emotional, blinded by hatred.He had believed himself rational, noble, occupying the moral high ground.But now, the dead girl was his daughter.Every rig
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Chapter 7
For three full hours, Dad and Mom sat on the living room sofa without moving.The doorbell rang. Dad started as though jolted awake and stumbled to the door.Detective Harris and two officers stood outside, their faces grave. "Mr. Reese, Mrs. Reese. The recovery operation at the Esser River is complete. The remains of the eighth victim have been brought ashore."The forensic lab just confirmed the DNA match. It is your daughter, Mia. Time of death, approximately one year ago. Consistent with Leo's account."Mom's legs gave out. She slid down the doorframe to the floor."The medical examiner's office has... arranged for you to view the remains. Would you... like to go?" Harris softened his voice.Dad's lips quivered. For a long time, no words came. In the end, he gave a single stiff nod.The morgue at the medical examiner's office was as cold as a freezer. Dad and Mom had to be half-carried in by the officers.A white sheet covered the remains on the examination table. The medical exami
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Chapter 8
Those words struck my parents like a bolt of lightning.Mom's voice turned shrill. "No. Absolutely not! He killed eight people! He has to die! We take it back! We're taking back everything we said, right now!"A barely perceptible note of scorn flickered in Harris's eyes. "Mrs. Reese, you're a well-known attorney. You should know the justice system is no game. Every word spoken in court is on the record. You can't erase it because you regret it now. When you were up on your high horse, being so generous with other people's pain, did it ever occur to you that it might come around to you?"With that, he turned and left with his officers without another word.Mom clenched her fists, unable to say a single thing in her own defense.After all, when those victims' families had wept and begged the court to sentence Leo to death, she was the one sitting in the gallery, casually suggesting that the victims were partly at fault.It was Dad who had stood at the defense lectern, eloquently preachi
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Chapter 9
Two weeks later, the hearing resumed.The gallery was even more packed than before, flooded with reporters and spectators.Everyone was waiting for the sentence.The courtroom erupted when the judge read the sentence."On eight counts of first-degree murder, the defendant, Leo Mercer, is found guilty. The crimes were exceptionally heinous and posed an extreme danger to the public. However, in light of his diagnosed psychiatric disorder, and given the weight this court affords the rehabilitation-first principle argued by the defense, the defendant is sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole."The death penalty will not be imposed.""No!" Screams of anguish tore through the victims' families. Some collapsed onto the floor. One mother fainted outright, unable to bear the blow.The courtroom dissolved into chaos."How can you not sentence him to death? He killed eight people!""Mental disorder? Bullshit! He's faking it!""Rehabilitation first! Easy for you to say! It's
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Chapter 10
After everything was settled, Mom resigned from her practice.She sold the house, the cars, every property and share she owned.Every last dollar went to child-welfare nonprofits serving foster youth.Then she left and never settled anywhere again.Some said they'd seen her by the Esser River.She would sit on the stone steps by the water in clothes faded from countless washings and stay there from morning to night.A small bouquet of white flowers would drift on the water before her, slowly carried downstream.Others said that everywhere she went, she volunteered with organizations serving children in foster care.She bought the children clothes and school supplies, told them stories, and taught them to read and write.She was gentle with every single child. But no one ever saw her smile.Some said she often sat by the roadside in the middle of the night, talking to herself, as though apologizing to someone.Only Mom knew that she would never outrun this. Not for the rest of her life.
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